If there were any original beauty in such proportions, they would be as certain as those of any other sense ; there would be one precise proportion of these dimen sions, of length, breadth, and height, solely and per manently beautiful. But no artist has pretended to de termine any such proportions ; on the contrary, there is no permanent beauty in any one relation of those dimen sions ; the same proportions which are beautiful in one apartment, are not so in another.
• There appear to be three causes for the difference of our opinions of proportions : 1st, From the considera tion of the weight supported. As roofs are usually com posed of timber, and supported by walls, the necessary dimensions are not very precisely determined ; and they may, accordingly, be varied within certain limits. These limits are less rigorous in the case of length or height, than in what regards breadth ; for the same proportion of breadth which is beautiful in one case, would be po sitively disagreeable in another.
2d, The difference of opinion arises also from the character of the apartment, as gaiety, simplicity, so lemnity, grandeur, magnificence ; for no room is beau tiful which has not some expressive character. The same proportion which is beautiful in a room of gaiety, would be a defect in one whose character was that of sim plicity; the same proportions which are pleasing in an elegant or convenient room, would be defective in an apartment of magnificence and splendour. In general, the great and positive beauty of apartments arises from their character: thus difference of character requires a difference in the composition of the dimensions, and a beautiful form is only produced, when the composition of different proportions is such as to produce one pure and unmingled expression.
3. A third cause of the difference of our opinions of the beauty of proportions, arises from the destination of the apartment ; and this, as in the hall, saloon, anticham her, drawing-room, dining-loom, library, chapel, Sic. re quires different proportions, and these depend jointly upon utility and character.
The observations offered on the beauty of the inter nal proportions of architecture, afford sufficient evidence for concluding, in general, that the beauty of these pro portions is not original and independent, but that it arises in all cases from the expression of some species of fit ness. The fitness which such proportion may express,
is of different kinds ; as, " 1. One beauty of these propoitions arises from their expression of fitness for the support of the weight imposed.
"2. A second source of their beauty consists in their expression of fitness for the preservation of the charac ter of the apartment.
" 3. A third source of their beauty consists in their expression of fitness, in the general form, for its pecu liar purpose or end.
" The two first constitute the permanent beauty, and the third the accidental beauty of an apartment.
The most perfect beauty that the proportions of an apartment can exhibit, will be when all these expres sions unite, or when the same relations of dimensions which arc productive of the expressions of sufficiency, agree also in the preservation of character, and in the indication of use." Besides the expressions that have now been consider ed as great and permanent sources of the beauty of forms, there are others which have an observable effect in producing the same emotion in our minds, which be termed accidental beauty.
Associations of this kind arise from education, from early or peculiar habits of thought, from situation, and from professions ; and the beauty they produce is felt only by those whom similar causes have led to the forma tion of similar associations. When these associations arc common to many individuals, they sometimes become su perior to the more permanent principles of beauty, and may for a time determine the taste of nations.
The succession of the fashions of furniture, is a strong instance of this. Within a few years, the forms copied from the Chinese, the Gothic, and Antique styles, have succeeded each other ; and each, in its turn, has been cultivated with equal zeal and success. With the first, were associated all the notions of eastern magnificence ; with the second, the adventures and gallantry of the Gothic manners, and all the elegance and splendour of its cathedrals ; and, with the third, our imaginations are crowded with the recollection of Grecian and Roman taste.