'1 his theory may have some plausibility when ap plied to works of art ; but it is altogether defective when applied to the beauties ofnature. Dr Hutcheson, indeed, illustrates his doctrine by examples, deduced .not only from artificial figures, but from the outward form and inward structure of animals ; from the pro .portion of their parts to each other ; from the har mony of sound ; from general theorems, Stc. But ' there may be a L -eat deal of beauty where there is no variety at all, as in a single agreeable colour, or a single melodious sound ; and many beautiful objects have a variety amounting to intricacy. In the beau ties of nature, we must take into the account sim plicity, elegance, delicacy, and a number of qualities which are totally disregarded in the theory of Dr Hutcheson.
The ingenious Mr Hogarth, in his Analysis of Beauty, seems to consider variety as its. most essen tial characteristic : he enumerates, indeed, five other Qualities, as contributing to our approbation of beau tiful objects, namely, fitness, uniformity, simplicity, intricacy, and quantity ; but rather as secondary and subsidiary causes of this approbation, than as the primary and essential requisites of beauty. He ex pressly lays it down, that " those lines which have most variety in themselves contribute most towards the production of beauty ;" and that the most beau tiful line by which a surface can be bounded, is the waving, or serpentine, or that which continually and imperceptibly deviates from the straight line. This, which is so frequently exhibited in shells, flowers, and other pleasing productions of nature, he calls the line of beauty ; and another line, which he calls the line of grace, is the same waving curve twisted spirally round a solid body, as in the worm of a com mon jack, or the horns of various animals. On the curling worm-wheel of the jack, Mr Hogarth des cants with peculiar delight. It is, he says, always pleasing, either at rest or in motion ; but particu larly attractive when in motion. " I never can for get," he adds, " my frequent strong attention to it when I was very young ; and that its beguiling move ment gave me the same kind of sensation then, which I since have felt at seeing a country dance, though perhaps the latter might be somewhat more enga ging, particularly when my eye eagerly pursued a favourite dancer, through all the windings of the fi gure." Analysis (ye Beauty, ch. v.
Mr Hogarth's theory, like that of Dr Hutcheson, undoubtedly takes too limited a view of the sources of the beautiful. Many other qualities, besides gra dual variation of outline, have a share in producing this effect, while many beautiful forms may be point ed out, in which the straight line entirely predomi nates. This. we shall immediately have occasion to illustrate more particularly ; and in the mean time shall be content with observing, that the Grecian nose, which is perfectly straight, has as many ad mirers as the Roman, with all the advantages of its graceful curvature.
Various authors, as if despairing of being able to resolve beauty into its absolute essence, have content ed themselves with an enumeration of the various qua lities which most eminently distinguish beautiful ob jects ; and which may therefore be said to form the constituents of beauty. In an ingenious performance
called Crito,or a Dialogue on Beauty, ascribed to the author of Polymetis, the constituent qualities of beau ty, at least in the female sex, are reduced to four ; viz. colour, form, expression, and grace ; the two former of which may be called the body, and the two latter the soul of beauty. Mr Burke is inclined to consider beauty as a quality in bodies acting mecha nically upon the human mind, through the medium of the senses, and arising from the following particu lars : smallness of size, smoothness, gradual variation of outline, delicacy, and colour. This, at best, can be looked upon only as an enumeration of beautiful qualities, and not an analysis of beauty itself. But even contemplated as a mere enumeration, this ac count of the matter is very unsatisfactory ; for we have just seen that gradual variation of outline is by no means essential to beauty ; and so far is smallness of size from being so, that Mr Hogarth, as above mentioned, considers quantity, or greatness of dimen sion, as an important constituent of beautiful objects.
The insufficiency of all those systems that attempt to reduce beauty to certain permanent and invariable qualities in objects, has been very satisfactorily proved by Mr Alison, in his Essays on the Nature and Prin ciples of Taste, in consequence of a very careful and judicious examination of the distinguishing properties of all those objects that we denominate beautiful. " It should seem," says this ingenious author, " that a very simple and a very obvious principle is sufficient to guide our investigation into the source of the beau ty of the qualities of matter. If these qualities are in themselves fitted to produce the emotion of beauty, (or, in other words, are in themselves beautiful,) I think it is obvious that they must produce this emo tion, independently of any association. If, on the contrary, it is found, that these qualities only produce such emotion when they are associated with interest ing or affecting qualities ; and that when such asso ciations are destroyed, they no longer produce the same emotion, I think it must also be allowed, that their beauty is to be ascribed, not to the material, but to the associated qualities." (Essay 2.) Hav ing laid down this general principle, Mr Alison pro ceeds to examine whatever as beautiful in the material world, contemplated under the various aspects of sounds, colours, forms, and motions ; and infers, that it is principally, or solely in consequence of association, that we ascribe beauty to many of. these, and not in consequence of any permanent mate rial qualities ; because he finds nothing in the quali ties themselves when simply considered, calculated to raise any emotion in the mind ; because it is only with persons who have such associations that these qualities are considered as beautiful, and because, when these associations are destroyed, the beauty of the qualities is destroyed at the same time.