Beauty Part 7

ELEMENTS OF BEAUTY IN INANIMATE BEINGS.

Though Burke did not accurately trace the elements of beauty in any one cla.s.s of the objects of nature or art, he yet states a preliminary truth on this subject so well, that I here quote it: "It would be absurd," he observes, "to say that all things affect us by a.s.sociation only; since some things must have been originally and naturally agreeable or disagreeable, from which the others derive their a.s.sociated powers; and it would be, I fancy, to little purpose to look for the cause of our pa.s.sions in a.s.sociation, until we fail of it in the natural properties of things."

Home, advancing farther, says: "If a tree be beautiful by means of its color, its figure, its size, its motion, it is in reality possessed of so many different beauties, which ought to be examined separately, in order to have a clear notion of the whole.

"When any body is viewed as a whole, the beauty of its figure arises from regularity[12] and simplicity; and viewing the parts with relation to each other, from uniformity[12], proportion, and order."

I will here only observe that these are the qualities, as will speedily appear, which Burke should have set down as the fundamental and first characteristics of beauty, instead of relative littleness, which belongs not to beauty generally, but only to the minor or subordinate beauty.

Even Home, having arrived thus far, says: "To inquire why an object, by means of the particulars mentioned, appears beautiful, would, I am afraid, be a vain attempt."

But he truly adds: "One thing is clear, that regularity, uniformity, order, and simplicity, contribute each of them to readiness of apprehension, and enable us to form more distinct images of objects than can be done, with the utmost attention, where these particulars are not found." And he subjoins: "This final cause is, I acknowledge, too slight, to account satisfactorily for a taste that makes a figure so ill.u.s.trious in the nature of man; and that this branch of our const.i.tution has a purpose still more important, we have great reason to believe."

Now had Home seen that the characteristics of general beauty always are, with regard to the object, accordant and agreeable relations, the importance of the qualities he has just enumerated would have been evident; for, without them, these characteristics of the object could not exist: simplicity, regularity, uniformity, order, &c., are the very elements of accordant and agreeable relations. This is in reality the still more important purpose in which Home believed, and to which the readiness of apprehension he now alludes to eminently contributes.

As to simplicity, he observes, that "a mult.i.tude of objects crowding into the mind at once, disturb the attention, and pa.s.s without making any impression, or any lasting impression; and in a group, no single object makes the figure it would do apart, when it occupies the whole attention.

For the same reason, even a single object, when it divides the attention by the multiplicity of its parts, equals not, in strength of impression, a more simple object comprehended in a single view: parts extremely complex must be considered in portions successively; and a number of impressions in succession, which cannot unite because not simultaneous, never touch the mind like one entire impression made as it were at one stroke.

"A square is less beautiful than a circle, because it is less simple: a circle has parts as well as a square; but its parts not being distinct like those of a square, it makes one entire impression; whereas, the attention is divided among the sides and angles of a square.... A square, though not more regular than a hexagon or octagon, is more beautiful than either, because a square is more simple, and the attention less divided.

"Simplicity thus contributes to beauty."

By regularity is meant that circ.u.mstance in a figure by which we perceive it to be formed according to a certain rule. Thus, a circle, a square, a parallelogram, or triangle, pleases by its regularity.

"A square," says Home--(who here furnishes the best materials to a more general view, because he most frequently a.s.signs physical causes, and whom, with some abbreviation, I therefore continue to quote)--"a square is more beautiful than a parallelogram, because the former exceeds the latter in regularity and in uniformity of parts. This is true with respect to intrinsic beauty only; for in many instances, utility comes in to cast the balance on the side of the parallelogram: this figure for the doors and windows of a dwelling-house, is preferred because of utility; and here we find the beauty of utility prevailing over that of regularity and uniformity."

Thus regularity and uniformity contribute to intrinsic beauty.

"A parallelogram, again, depends for its beauty on the proportion [or relation of quant.i.ty] of its sides. Its beauty is lost by a great inequality of these sides: it is also lost by their approximating toward equality; for proportion there degenerates into imperfect uniformity, and the figure appears an unsuccessful attempt toward a square."

Thus proportion contributes to beauty.

"An equilateral triangle yields not to a square in regularity nor in uniformity of parts, and it is more simple. Its inferiority in beauty is at least partly owing to inferiority of order in the position of its parts: the sides of an equilateral triangle incline to each other in the same angle, which is the most perfect order they are susceptible of; but this order is obscure, and far from being so perfect as the parallelism of the sides of a square."

Thus order contributes to the beauty of visible objects.

"A mountain, it may be objected, is an agreeable object, without so much as the appearance of regularity; and a chain of mountains is still more agreeable, without being arranged in any order. But though regularity, uniformity, and order, are causes of beauty, there are also other causes of it, as color; and when we pa.s.s from small to great objects, and consider grandeur instead of beauty, very little regularity is required."

It follows, from all that has been here said, and this has been shown by Burke, that any rugged, any sudden projection, any sharp angle, is in the highest degree contrary to the idea of beauty. Such projections and angles are dest.i.tute of all the qualities which have just been enumerated--simplicity, regularity, uniformity, proportion, order; and conformably to the principles I have laid down in a previous chapter, they can present only relations which are naturally disagreeable. This view is corroborated by the fact, that all very sharp, broken, or angular objects, were disagreeable to the boy couched by Cheselden, as they are to all eyes of very nice sensibility.

Now, as angular forms give, to the sense of touch, sharpness, roughness, or harshness, so do opposite forms give smoothness or fineness. Hence, Burke makes smoothness his second characteristic of beauty, and that far more truly than he makes littleness its first, for, as he observes, "smoothness is a quality so essential to beauty, that I do not now recollect anything beautiful that is not smooth."

Such being really the case, I am bound to expose Knight's sophistry on this point. "This elegant author," says he, "has expatiated upon the gratifications of feeling smooth and undulating surfaces in general: but, I believe, these gratifications have been confined to himself; and probably to his own imagination acting through the medium of his favorite system: for, except in the communication of the s.e.xes, which affords no general ill.u.s.tration, and ought therefore to be kept entirely out of the question, I have never heard of any person being addicted to such luxuries; though a feeling-board would certainly afford as cheap and innocent a gratification, as either a smelling-bottle, a picture, or a flute, provided it were capable of affording any gratification at all."

This is a good specimen of the kind of perverted reasoning, which peculiarly distinguishes Knight.

A man affecting the character of philosopher, ought calmly to have observed that, by young people before p.u.b.erty, and, consequently, when there is not the slightest s.e.xual bias, smooth objects are generally found to be agreeable, and rough or harsh ones to be the reverse. This would at once have set him right upon this point.

If, to such a man, it should for a moment have appeared worth while to ask why we do not make use of feeling-boards, as well as of smelling-bottles, he ought to have sought the solution of his difficulty in the nature of the senses; and then, with a trifle more of ability than Payne Knight hereby shows himself to have possessed, he would have seen that smoothness affords us as much pleasure as any smell, but that, as it would have been always troublesome, and often impossible, to apply our fingers to smooth surfaces, we generally receive the varied and incessant pleasure it affords, by means of sight; that it is borne by light to the eye, as smell is by the air; and that this is the reason why, except when contact is indispensable, we have no need of anything in the way of a feeling-board.

But Knight says: "Smoothness being properly a quality, perceivable only by the touch, and applied metaphorically to the objects of the other senses, we often apply it, very improperly, to those of vision; a.s.signing smoothness as a cause of visible beauty, to things which, though smooth to the touch, cast the most sharp, harsh, and angular reflections of light upon the eyes; and these reflections are all that the eye feels, or naturally perceives.... Such are all objects of cut-gla.s.s or polished metal; as may be seen by the manner in which painters imitate them: for, as the imitations of painting extend only to the visible qualities of bodies, they show those visible qualities fairly and impartially.... Yet the imitative representation of such objects in painting is far less harsh and dazzling than the effects of them in reality: for there are no materials that a painter can employ, capable of expressing the sharpness and brilliancy of those angular reflections of the collected and condensed rays, which are emitted from the surfaces of polished metals."

It seems, to me, scarcely possible to find sophistry more worthless than this, or rather a more contemptible quibble; for that which, availing himself of our technicalities about light, he calls angularity, sharpness, &c., has no a.n.a.logy with disagreeable angularity of form. To produce the brilliance and splendor which he calls angular, and describes as so _offensive_, we polish crystalline and metallic bodies in the highest degree!--we value precisely those which thus admit of greatest splendor!--and, on that very account, the diamond (rightly or wrongly, is not the question) is deemed the most valuable object on earth!

So much for those elements of beauty, in inanimate things, which fall under the cognizance of our fundamental sense, or that of touch.

As to sight and its objects, it is true that, as this organ varies in different persons, their taste is modified, with regard to colors. But the preference of light and delicate colors to dark and glaring ones, is almost universal among persons of sensibility.

Alison, indeed, ascribes the effects of all colors to a.s.sociation.

"White," he says, "as it is the color of day, is expressive to us of the cheerfulness or gayety which the return of day brings: black, as the color of darkness [night], is expressive of gloom and melancholy." And he adds: "Whether some colors may not of themselves produce agreeable sensations, and others disagreeable sensations, I am not anxious to dispute." But this is the very point into which Alison ought to have inquired. Nature does nothing without foundation in the simplest principles; and this foundation is not only anterior to, but is the cause of all a.s.sociation.

That, independent of any a.s.sociation, blackness is naturally disagreeable, if not painful, is happily determined by the case of the boy restored to sight by Cheselden, who tells us that the first time the boy saw a black object, it gave him great uneasiness; and that, some time after, upon accidentally seeing a negro-woman, he was struck with great horror at the sight. This appears to be perfectly conclusive.

Knight indeed says: "As to the uneasiness which the boy, couched by Cheselden, felt at the first sight of a black object, it arose either from the harshness of its outline, or from its appearing to act as a partial extinguisher applied to his eyes, which, as every object that he saw, seemed to touch them, would, of course, be its effect." It is highly probable that black operates in both these ways; and it has therefore natural effects, independent of all a.s.sociation.

As to sounds, Alison observes, that the cries of some animals are sublime, as the roar of the lion, the scream of the eagle, &c.; and he thinks they become so, because we a.s.sociate them with the strength and ferocity of the animals which utter them. By opposite a.s.sociations, he accounts for the beauty of the notes of birds. And he says, that there is a similar sublimity or beauty, in the tones of the human voice, and that "such sounds are a.s.sociated, in our imaginations, with the qualities of mind of which they are in general expressive, and naturally produce in us the conception of these qualities."

This writer endeavors to establish his views on this subject, by observing, that "grandeur or sublimity of sound, can no otherwise arise from its loudness, than as that loudness excites an idea of power in the sonorous object, or in some other a.s.sociated with it in the mind: for a child's drum, close to the ear, fills it with more real noise, than the discharge of a cannon a mile off; and the rattling of a carriage in the street, when faintly and indistinctly heard, has often been mistaken for thunder at a distance. Yet no one ever imagined the beating of a child's drum, or the rattling of a carriage over the stones, to be grand or sublime; which, nevertheless, they must be, if grandeur or sublimity belong at all to the sensation of loudness. But artillery and lightning are powerful engines of destruction; and with their power we sympathize, whenever the sound of them excites any sentiments of sublimity."

Now, all this is directly opposed to the doctrine it is meant to support.

It distinctly implies that loudness is so natural and so frequent a result of the violent contact of bodies, that we sometimes mistakenly ascribe power to objects, of which we have not correctly distinguished the sounds, owing to imitation, distance, &c. The occasional mistake implies the general truth.

Alison, himself, notwithstanding his doctrine of a.s.sociation, is accordingly led to observe, that "there are some philosophers who consider these as the natural signs of pa.s.sion or affection, and who believe that it is not from experience, but by means of an original faculty, that we interpret them: and this opinion is supported by great authorities."

He adds the following observations, which, notwithstanding the error they involve, are too much to the purpose to be omitted here, and which in reality ill.u.s.trate a natural and true theory, better than they do his own:--

"It is natural, however, to suppose, that in this, as in every case, our experience should gradually lead to the formation of some general rules, with regard to this expression.

"The great divisions of sound are into loud and low, grave and acute, long and short, increasing and diminis.h.i.+ng. The two first divisions are expressive in themselves: the two last, only in conjunction with others.

"Loud sound is connected with ideas of power and danger. Many objects in nature which have such qualities, are distinguished by such sounds; and this a.s.sociation is farther confirmed from the human voice, in which all violent and impetuous pa.s.sions are expressed in loud tones.

"Low sound has a contrary expression, and is connected with ideas of weakness, gentleness, and delicacy. This a.s.sociation takes its rise, not only from the observation of inanimate nature, or of animals, where, in a great number of cases, such sounds distinguish objects with such qualities, but particularly from the human voice, where all gentle, or delicate, or sorrowful affections are expressed by such tones.

"Grave sound is connected with ideas of moderation, dignity, solemnity, &c., princ.i.p.ally, I believe, from all moderate, or restrained, or chastened affections being distinguished by such tones in the human voice.

"Acute sound is expressive of pain, or fear, or surprise, &c., and generally operates by producing some degree of astonishment. This a.s.sociation, also, seems princ.i.p.ally to arise from our experience of such connexions in the human voice.

"Long or lengthened sound seems to me to have no expression in itself, but only to signify the continuance of that quality which is signified by other qualities of sound. A loud or a low, a grave or an acute sound prolonged expresses to us no more than the continuance of the quality which is generally signified by such sounds.

"Short or abrupt sound has a contrary expression, and signifies the sudden cessation of the quality thus expressed.

"Increasing sound signifies, in the same manner, the increase of the quality expressed.

"Decreasing sound signifies the gradual diminution of such qualities.

"Motion furnishes another sort of beauty.

"Figure, color, and motion, readily blend in one object, and one general perception of beauty. In many beautiful objects they all unite, and render the beauty greater."