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Arength, and afferting a right to fuperior fates. When you leave man out of your account, and view the whole vifible creation befide, you indeed fee feveral traces of grandeur and unfpeakable power, and the intermixture of a rich fcenery of beauty; yet ftill the whole appears to be but a folemn abfurdity, and to have a littlenefs and infignificancy. But when you restore man to profpect, and put him at the head of it, endued with genius and an immortal foul; when you give him a paffion for truth, boundless views that fpread along through eternity, and a fortitude that ftruggles with fate, and yields not to misfortunes, then the fkies, the ocean, and the earth, take the ftamp of worth and dignity from the noble inhabitant whofe purpofes they serve.

A mind fraught with the virtues is the natural foil of elegance. Unaffected truth, generofity, and grandeur of foul, for ever pleafe and charm: even when they break from the common forms, and appear wild and unmethodized by education, they are ftill beautiful. On the contrary, as foon as we discover that outward elegance, which is formed by the mode, to want truth, generofity, or grandeur of foul, it inftantly finks in our esteem like counterfeit coin, and we are fenfible of a reluctant difappointment, like that of the lover in the epigram, who became enamoured with the lady's voice and the foftnefs of her hand in the dark, but was cured of his paffion as foon as he had light to view her.

Let us now pals on to the moft pleafing part of elegance, an habitual difplay of the kind and gentle paffions.

We are naturally inclined to love those who bear an affection to us; and we are charmed with the homage that is paid to our merit by thefe weakneffes politenefs attacks us. The well-bred gentleman always in his behaviour infinuates a regard to others, tempered with respect. His attention to please confeffes plainly his kindnefs to you, and the high efteem he holds you in. The affiduous prevention of our withes, and that yielding fweetnefs complaifance puts on for our fake, are irrefiftible; and although we know this kind of Aattery to be prostitute and habitual, yet it is not indifferent to us; we receive it in a manner that shows how much it gratifies

The defire of being agreeable, finds out the art of being fo without ftudy or labour. Ruftics who fall in love, grow unusually polite and engaging. This new charm, that

has altered their natures, and fuddenly endued them with the powers of pleafing, is nothing more than an enlivened attention to picafe, that has taken poffeffion of their minds, and tinctured their actions. We ought not to wonder that love is thus enchanting: its tender affiduity is but the natural addrefs of the paffion; politeness borrows the flattering form of affection, and becomes agreeable by the appearance of kindness.

What pleafes us generally appears beautiful. Complaifance, that is fo engaging, gives an agreeablenefs to the whole perfon, and creates a beauty that nature gave not to the features; it fubmits, it promises, it applauds in the countenance; the heart lays itself in fimiles at your feet, and a voice that is indulgent and tender, is always heard with pleasure.

The laft constituent part of elegance is the picture of a tranquil foul that appears in foftening the actions and emotions, and exhibits a retired profpect of happiness and innocence.

A calm of mind that is feen in graceful eafy action, and in the enfeeblement of our paffions, gives us an idea of the golden age, when human nature, adorned with innocence, and the peace that attends it, repofed in the arms of content. This ferene profpect of human nature always pleases us; and although the content, whofe image it is, be vifionary in this world, and we cannot arrive at it, yet it is the point in imagination we have finally in view, in all the purfuits of life, and the native home for which we do not ceafe to languish.

The fentiment of tranquillity particularly beautifies paftoral poetry. The images of calm and happy quiet that appear in fhaded groves, in filent vales, and lumbers by falling ftreams, invite the poet to indulge his genius in rural fcenes. The mufic that lulls and compofes the mind, at the fame time enchants it. The hue of this beautecus eafe, caft over the human actions and emotions, forms a very delightful part of elegance, and gives the other conftituent parts an appearance of nature and truth: for in a tranquil state of mind, undisturbed by wants or fears, the views of men are generous and elevated. From the combination of thefe fine parts, grandeur of foul, complacency, and ease, arise the enchantments of elegance; but the appearance of the two laft are oftener found together, and then they form Politeness.

When we take a view of the feparate

parts

care.

parts that conftitute perfonal elegance, we immediately know the feeds that are proper to be cherished in the infant mind, to bring forth the beauteous production. The virtues fhould be cultivated early with facred Good-nature, modefty, affability, and a kind concern for others, fhould be carefully inculcated; and an eafy unconftrained dominion acquired by habit over the paffions. A mind thus finely prepared, is capable of the highest luftre of elegance; which is afterwards attained with as little labour as our firft language, by only affociating with graceful people of different characters, from whom an habitual gracefulness will be acquired, that will bear the natural unaffected stamp of our own minds; in fhort, it will be our own character and genius ftripped of its native rudeness, and enriched with beauty and attraction.

Nature, that beftows her favours without refpect of perfons, often denies to the great the capacity of diftinguifhed elegance, and flings it away in obfcure villages. You fometimes fee it at a country fair fpread an amiableness over a fun-burnt girl, like the light of the moon through a mift; but fuch, madam, is the neceffity of habitual elegance acquired by education and converfe, that if even you were born in that low clafs, you could be no more than the faireft damfel at the may-pole, and the object of the hope and jealousy of a few ruftics.

People are rendered totally incapable of elegance by the want of good-nature, and the other gentle paffions; by the want of modefty and fenfibility; and by a want of that noble pride, which arifes from a confcioufnefs of lofty and generous fentiments. The abfence of thefe native charms is generally fupplied by a brifk ftupidity, an impudence unconscious of defect, a caft of malice, and an uncommon tendency to ridicule; as if nature had given thefe her ftep-children an inftinctive intelligence, that they can rife out of contempt only by the depreffion of others. For the fame reafon it is, that perfons of true and finished tafte feldom affect ridicule, because they are conscious of their own fuperior merit. Pride is the cause of ridicule in the one, as it is of candour in the other; but the effects differ, as the ftudied parade of poverty does from the negligent grandeur of riches. You will fee nothing more common in the world, than for people, who by ftupidity and infenfibility are incapable of the graces, to commence wits on the

ftrength of the petite talents of mimicry. and the brifk tartnefs that ill-nature never fails to fupply.

From what I have faid it appears, that a fenfe of elegance is a fenfe of dignity, of virtue, and innocence, united. Is it not natural then to expect, that in the courie of a liberal education, men should cultivate the generous qualities they approve and affume? But instead of them, men only aim at the appearances, which require no felfdenial; and thus, without acquiring the virtues, they facrifice their honesty and fincerity: whence it comes to pass, that there is often the leaft virtue, where there is the greatest appearance of it; and that the polifhed part of mankind only arrive at the fubtile corruption, of uniting vice with the drefs and complexion of virtue.

I have dwelt on perfonal elegance, becaufe the ideas and principles in this part of good tafte are more familiar to you. We may then take them for a foundation, in our future obfervations, fince the fame principles of eafy grace and fimple grandeur, will animate our ideas with an unftudied propriety, and enlighten our judgments in beauty, in literature, in fculpture, painting, and the other departments of fine tafte. Ufher.

$219. On Perfonal Beauty.

I fhall but flightly touch on our taste of perfonal beauty, because it requires no directions to be known. To ask what is beauty, fays a philofopher, is the queftion of a blind man. I shall therefore only make a few reflections on this head, that lie out of the common track. But prior to what I have to fay, it is neceffary to make fome obfervations on phyfiognomy.

There is an obvious relation between the mind and the turn of the features, fo well known by inftinct, that every one is more or lefs expert at reading the countenance. We look as well as fpeak our minds; and amongst people of little experience, the look is generally moft fincere. This is fo well understood, that it is become a part of education to learn to disguise the countenance, which yet requires a habit from early youth, and the continual practice of hypocrify, to deceive an intelligent eye. The natural virtues and vices not only have their places in the afpect, even acquired habits that much affect the mind fettle there; contemplation, in length of time, gives a caft of thought on the countenance.

Now to come back to our subject. The

aflemblage

affemblage called beauty, is the image of noble fentiments and amiable paffions in the face; but fo blended and confufed that we are not able to feparate and diftinguish them. The mind has a fenfibility, and clear knowledge, in many inftances without reflection, or even the power of reafoning upon its own perceptions. We can no more account for the relation between the pailions of the mind and a fet of features, than we can account for the relation between the founds of mufic and the paflions; the eye is judge of the one without principles or rules, as the ear is of the other. It is impoffible you should not take notice of the remarkable difference of beauty in the fame face, in a good and in ill humour; and if the gentle paffions, in an indifferent face, do not change it to perfect beauty, it is because nature did not originally model the features to the juft and familiar expreffion of thofe paffions, and the genuine expreffions of nature can never be wholly obliterated. But it is neceffary to obferve, that the engaging import that forms beauty, is often the fymbol of paffions that, although pleafing, are dangerous to virtue; and that a firmness of mind, whofe caft of feature is much lefs pleafing, is more favourable to virtue. From the affinity between beauty and the paffions it muft follow, that beauty is relative, that is, a fenfe of human beauty is confined to our fpecies; and alfo, as far as we have power over the paffions, we are able to improve the face, and tranfplant charms into it; both of which obfervations have been often made. From the various principles of beauty, and the agreeable combinations, of which the face gives intelligence, fprings that variety found in the style of beauty.

Complexion is a kind of beauty that is only pleafing by affociation. The brown, the fair, the black, are not any of them original beauty; but when the complexion is united in one picture on the imagination, with the affemblage that forms the image of the tender paffions, with gentle fmiles, and kind endearments, it is then infeparable from our idea of beauty, and forms a part of it. From the fame cause, a national fet of features appear amiable to the inhabitants, who have been accustomed to see the amiable difpofitions through them. This obfervation refolves a difficulty, that often occurs in the reflections of men on our prefent fubject. We all fpeak of beauty as if it were acknowledged and fettled by a public ftandard; yet we find, in fact, that people, in placing their affections, often have little re

gard to the common notions of beauty. The truth is, complexion and form being the charms that are visible and confpicuous, the common ftandard of beauty is generally reftrained to thofe general attractions: but fince perfonal grace and the engaging paffions, although they cannot be delineated, have a more univerfal and uniform power, it is no wonder people, in refigning their hearts, fo often contradict the common received ftandard. Accordingly, as the engaging paflions and the addrefs are difcovered in converfation, the tender attachments of people are generally fixed by an intercourfe of fentiment, and feldom by a tranfient view, except in romances and novels. It is further to be obferved, that when once the affections are fixed, a new face with a higher degree of beauty will not always have a higher degree of power to remove them, because our affections arise from a fource within ourselves, as well as from external beauty; and when the tender paffion is attached by a particular object, the imagination furrounds that object with a thousand ideal embellishments that exift only in the mind of the lover.

The hiftory of the fhort life of beauty may be collected from what I have said. In youth that borders on infancy, the paffions are in a flate of vegetation, they only appear in full bloom in maturity; for which reafon the beauty of youth is no more than the dawn and promife of future beauty. The features, as we grow into years, gradually form along with the mind: different fenfibilities gather into the countenance, and become beauty there, as colours mount in a tulip, and enrich it. When the elo

quent force and delicacy of fentiment has Continued fome little time, age begins to ftiffen the features, and deftroy the engaging variety and vivacity of the countenance, the eye gradually lofes its fire, and is no longer the mirror of the agreeable paffions. Finally, old age furrows the face with wrinkles, as a barbarous conqueror overturns a city from the foundation, and tranfitory beauty is extinguished.

Beauty and elegance are nearly related, their difference confifts in this, 'that elegance is the image of the mind displayed in motion and deportment; beauty is an image of the mind in the countenance and form; confequently beauty is of a more fixed nature, and owes lefs to art and habit.

When I fpeak of beauty, it is not wholly out of my way to make a fingular obfervation on the tender paffion in our species.

Innocent

1

Innocent and virtuous love cafts a beauteous hue over human nature; it quickens and ftrengthens our admiration of virtue, and our detestation of vice; it opens our eyes to our imperfections, and gives us a pride in excelling; it infpires us with heroic fentiments, generofity, a contempt of life, a boldness for enterprize, chastity, and purity of fentiment. It takes a fimilitude to devotion, and almoft deifies the object of paffion. People whose breasts are dulled with vice, or ftupified by nature, call this paflion romantic love; but when it was the mode, it was the diagnoftic of a virtuous age. Thefe fymptoms of heroifm fpring from an obfcure principle, that in a noble mind unites itself with every paffionate view in life; this nameless principle is diftinguifhed by endowing people with extraordinary powers and enthufiafin in the purfuit of their favourite wishes, and by difguft and disappointment when we arrive at the point where our wishes feem to be compleated. It has made great conquerors defpife dangers and death in their way to victory, and figh afterwards when they had no more to Ufher.

conquer.

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Conversation does not require the fame merit to pleafe that writing does. The human foul is endued with a kind of natural expreffion, which it does not acquire. The expreflion I fpeak of confifts in the fignificant modulations and tones of voice, accompanied, in unaffected people, by a propriety of gefture. This native language was not intended by nature to reprefent the tranfitory ideas that come by the fenfes to the imagination, but the paffions of the mind and its emotions only; therefore modulation and gefture give life and paffion to words; their mighty force in oratory is very confpicuous: but although their effects be milder in converfation, yet they are very fenfible; they agitate the foul by a variety of gentle fenfations, and help to form that fweet charm that makes the mott trifling fubjects engaging. This fine expreffion, which is

not learned, is not fo much taken notice of as it deferves, because it is much fuperfeded by the ufe of artificial and acquired language. The modern fyftem of philofophy has alfo concurred to fhut it out from our reflections.

It is in converfation people put on all their graces, and appear in the luftre of good breeding. It is certain, goodbreeding, that fets fo great a diftinction between individuals of the fame fpecies, creates nothing new (I mean a good education) but only draws forth into prospect, with fkill and addrefs, the agreeable difpofitions and fentiments that lay latent in the mind. You may call good-breeding artificial; but it is like the art of a gar dener, under whofe hand a barren tree puts forth its own bloom, and is enriched with its fpecific fruit. It is fcarce poffible to conceive any fcene fo truly agreeable as an affembly of people elaborately edu cated, who affume a character fuperior to ordinary life, and support it with ease and familiarity.

The heart is won in conversation by its own paffions. Its pride, its grandeur, its affections, lay it open to the enchantment of an infinuating addrefs. Flattery is a grofs charm, but who is proof against a gentle and yielding difpofition, that infers your fuperiority with a delicacy fo fine, that you cannot fee the lines of which it is compofed? Generofity, difinterestedness, a noble love of truth that will not deceive, a feeling of the diftreffes of others, and greatnefs of foul, infpire us with admiration along with love, and take our affections as it were by ftorm; but above all, we are feduced by a view of the tender and affectionate paffions; they carry a foft infection, and the heart is betrayed to them by its own forces. If we are to judge from fymptoms, the foul that engages us fo powerfully by its reflected glances, is an object of infinite beauty. I obferved before, that the modulations of the human voice that exprefs the foul, move us powerfully; and indeed we are affected by the natural emotions of the mind expreffed in the fimpleft language: in fhort, the happy art, that, in converfation and the intercourse of life, lays hold upon our affections, is but a juft address to the engaging paffions in the human breaft. But this fyren power, like beauty, is the gift of nature.

No arts can gain them, but the gods bestow. Soft pleafing fpeech and graceful outward show,

POPE'S HOM.

From

From the various combinations of the feveral endearing paffions and lofty fenti ments, arife the variety of pleafing characters that beautify human fociety.

There is a different fource of pleasure in converfation from what I have spoken of, called wit; which diverts the world fo much, that I cannot venture to omit it, although delicacy and a refined tafte hefitate a little, and will not allow its value to be equal to its currency. Wit deals largely in allufion and whimsical fimilitudes; its countenance is always double, and it unites the true and the fantaftic by a nice gradation of colouring that cannot be perceived. You obferve that I am only fpeaking of the ready wit of converfa

tion.

Wit is properly called in to fupport a co verfation where the heart or affections are not concerned; and its proper bufinefs is to relieve the mind from folitary inattention, where there is no room to move it by paflion; the mind's eye, when difeng aged, is diverted by being fixed upon a vapour, that dances, as it were, on the furface of the imagination, and continually alters its afpect: the motley image, whofe comic fide we had only time to furvey, is too unimportant to be attentively confidered, and luckily vanishes before we can view it on every fide. Shallow folks expect that those who diverted them in converfation, and made happy ben mots, ought to write well; and imagine that they themselves were made to laugh by the force of genius: but they are generally difappointed when they fee the admired character defcend upon paper. The truth is, the frivolous turn and habit of a comic companion, is almost diametrically oppofite to true genius, whofe natural exercife is deep and flow-paced reflection. You may as well expect that a man fhould, like Cæfar, form confiftent fchemes for fubduing the world, and employ the principal part of his time in catching flies. I have often heard people exprefs a furprise, that Swift and Addifon, the two greatest mafters of humour of the age, were eafily put out of countenance, as if pun, mimicry, or repartee, were the offspring of genius.

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Whatever fimilitude may be between humour in writing, and humour in converfation, they are generally found to require different talents. Humour in writing is the offspring of reflection, and is by nice touches and labour brought to wear

the negligent air of nature; whereas, wit in converfation is an enemy to reflection, and glows brighteft when the imagination flings off the thought the moment it arifes, in its genuine new-born drefs. Men a little elevated by liquor seem to have a peculiar facility at ftriking out the capricious and fantastic images that raise our mirth; in fact, what we generally admire in fallies of wit, is the nicety with which they touch upon the verge of folly, indifcretion, or malice, while at the fame time they preferve thought, fubtlety, and goodhumour; and what we laugh at is the motley appearance, whofe whimfical confiftency we cannot account for.

People are pleafed at wit for the fame reafon that they are fond of diversion of any kind, not for the worth of the thing, but because the mind is not able to bear an intenfe train of thinking; and yet the ceafing of thought is infufferable, or rather impoffible. In fuch an uneafy dilemma, the unfteady excurfions of wit give the mind its natural action, without fatigue, and relieve it delightfully, by employing the imagination without requiring any reflection. Thofe who have an eternal appetite for wit, like those who are ever in queft of diverfion, betray a frivolous minute genius, incapable of thinking. Uber.

§ 221. On Mufic.

There are few who have not felt the charms of mufic, and acknowledged its expreffions to be intelligible to the heart. It is a language of delightful fenfations, that is far more eloquent than words: it breathes to the ear the cleareft intimations; but how it was learned, to what origin we owe it, or what is the meaning of fome of its most affecting strains, we know not.

We feel plainly that mufic touches and gently agitates the agreeable and fublime paffions; that it wraps us in melancholy, and elevates in joy; that it diffolves and inflames; that it melts us in tenderness, and roufes to rage: but its strokes are fo fine and delicate, that, like a tragedy, even the paffions that are wounded pleafe; its forrows are charming, and its rage heroic and delightful; as people feel the particular paffions with different degrees of force, their tafte of harmony must proportionably vary. Music then is a language directed to the paffions; but the rudeft paffions put on a new nature, and

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become

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