In the vegetable creation, we find nothing so beau tiful as flowers; but flowers are almost of every sort of shape and arrangement ; and are turned and fa shioned into an infinite variety of forms. What pro portion do we discover between the stalks and the leaves of flowers, or between the leaves and the pis tils? How does the slender stalk of the rose agree with the bulky head under which it bends ? The flower of the apple, on the other band, is very small, and grows upon a iarge tree; yet the rose and the apple blossom are both beautiful, and the plants that bear them are most engagingly attired, notwithstand ing this disproption : What, by general consent, is allowed to be a more beautiful object than an otange tree, flourishing at once with its leaves, its blossoms, and its fruit ? but it is in vain that we search for any proportion between the height, the breadth, or any thing else concerning the dimensions of the whole, or concerning the relation of the par ticular parts to each other.
That proportion has but a small share in the for rnation of beauty, Is fully as evident among animals. Here the greatest variety of shapes, and dispropor tions of partS, are well fitted to excite this idea. " The swan," remarks Mt Burke, " confessedly a beautiful bird, has a neck longer than the rest of his body, and but a very short tail : Is thil a beautiful proportion ? We must allow that it is. But then what shall we say to the peacock, who has comparatively but a short neck, and a tail longer than the neck and the rest of the body take', together ? Turn next to beasts ; examine the head of a beautiful horse ; find tvliat prdpatioit that bears to the rest of his body, and to his limbs ; and *hat relations these have to each other; and when you have settled these propor tions as a standard of beauty, then take a dog or Cat, or any other animal, and examine how far the Sairie proportions between the heads and their neck, between those and the body, and so on, arc found to hold. I think we may safely say, that they differ in t•ery species ; yet that there are indiViduals found in a great many species So differing, that have a very striking beauty. Now, if it is to be allowed," adds our author, " that very different, and even contrary, forms and dispositions are consistent With beauty, it amounts, I believe, to a concession, that no certain measures operating from a natural principle, are ne cessary to produce it, at least so far as the brute Species are Sublime and Beciutifill, Part iii. Sect. S.
The idea That the bethiti of the hhman species de pends upon certain determinate proportions has been carried so far, that artists will tell us how Many heads go to the length of the body, how many wrists to the neck, or how many noses to the face. But the diversity that takes place in their various esti Mates, sufficiently spews the fallacy of their doctrine. Some hold a well-proportioned body to be seven heads ; some make it while others extend it even to ten. If we examine the master pieces of an cient and modern statuary, we shall find them for the Mostpart differing from these established rules, and also from one another in the proportions of their parts ; while they differ no less from the propor tions that we find in living men, of forms extremely striking and agreeable. " The Hercules, by Glicon," says Mr Hogarth, " bath all its parts finely fitted for the purposes of the utmost strength the texture of the human figure will bear ; the bade, breast, and shoul ders, have huge bones, and muscles adequate to the supposed active strength of its upper parts; but as less strength was required for the lower parts, the judicious sculptor, contrary to all modern rule of en larging every part in proportion, lessened the size of the muscles gradually down towards the feet ; arid, for the same reason, made the neck larger in circuits.
ference than any part of the head; otherwise the figure vaould have been burdened with an unnecessary weight, which would have been a drawback frOm his strength, and, in consequence of that, from its cha racteristic beauty. These seeming faults, which slimy the superior anatomical knowledge as well as judgment of the ancients, are not to be found in the leaden imi tations of it near Hyde Park. These Saturnine geniuses imagined they knew how to correct such appirent disproportions." Analysis of Beauty, chap. ii.
The doctrine that beauty consists in determi nate proportions, seems to have been derived from architecture; it being found that dwellings are most 'commodious and firm, when thrown into regular fi gures, with parts answerable to each other. This idea was transferred to our old-fashioned gardens, where trees were turned into pillars, pyramids, and obelisks; hedges were formed into so many green walls, and walks fashioned into squares, triangles, and other mathematical figures, with the Utmost exactness and symmetry. And thus it was thought, that if we were not imitating, we were at least improving na ture, and teaching her to know her business. But nature ha: at last escaped from these fetters ; and Our gardens, if nothing else, declare our conviction, that mathematical ideas are not the true measures of beauty. Even in architecture it is not any determi nate principles of proportion, so much as the notion of stability and commodiousness, and of the adaptation of the means to the proposed end, that fixes the form and measures of any particular building., there is one proportion of a tower, another of a house, one proportion of a gallery, another of a hall, another of a chamber; and to judge of the proportions of each, we must first be acquainted with the purposes for which they were designed; This leads us 'to notice that theory of the beauti ful; which resolves it into the perception of utility, or of an object being well adapted to answer the par ticular end foe' which it was intended; a doctrine which had no less general an extent than the' theory of proportion.' Utility, or fitness for some im portant purpose, is doubtless a quality in things which we always contemplate with complacency and approbation ; but ,it is a quality which may very readily be discriminated from beauty. On this prin ciple, as Mr Burke remarks, " the wedge-like snout of a swine, with its tough cartilage at the end, the little sunk eyes, and the whole make of the head, so well adapted to its offices of digging and rooting, would be extremely beautiful. The great bag hanging to the bill of a pelican, a thing highly useful to this animal, would be -likewise as beautiful our eyes. The hedgehog, so well secured against all assaults by his prickly hide, and the porcupine with his missile quills, would be then considered as creatures of no small elegance.. There are few animals," adds lie, whose parts are better contrived than those of a monkey; he has the hands of a man, joined to the springy limbs of a beast ; he is admirably calculated for running, leaping, grappling, and climbing ; and yet there are few animals which seem to have less, beauty in the eyes of all mankind. I need say little of the trunk of tile elephant, of such various useful ness, and which is so far from contributing to Ilia beauty. How well fitted is the wolf for running and -1 leaping ! how admirably is the lion armed for battle ! but will any one, therefore, call the elephant, the wolf, and the lion, beautiful animals ? I believe no body will think the form of a man's legs so well adapted to running as those of a horse, a dog, a deer, and several other creatures; at least they have not that appearance : yet, I believe, a well-fashioned hu man leg will be allowed far to exceed all these in beauty." Part iii. sect."7.