CHAP. II. tion. PART II. sponding limb be exactly in the same posture; and the position of the whole be perpendicularly Of Imagina- erect, with the weight distributed, exactly in due proportions, on the parts intended to bear it still, however, the painter has a resource; for if he should be compelled, by the nature of his subject, to introduce, into his composition, figure in this stiff and unpicturesque attitude, he can at all times vary it, in the human form, by irregular draperies; and, in horses and cattle, by the casual and irregular movements of the ears, the, mane, and the tail. Of the features, the eyes only, by the converging of their axes in vision, are always uniform and concordant with each other in every expression; all deviation from it being, in a greater or less degree, that morbid disposition called squinting. The brows, the cheeks, and the lips assume irregular forms in expressing the passions, sentiments, and affections of the mind; and this irregularity is varied, increased, or diminished by the distribution of the hair adjoining the face, which the artist may dispose as he chooses. 79. My friend, Mr. Price, indeed, admits squinting among the irregular and picturesque charms of the parson's daughter, whom (to illustrate the picturesque in opposition to the beautiful) he wishes to make appear lovely and *. PART II. tion. attractive, though without symmetry or beauty He has not, however, extended the details of CHAP. II. this want of symmetry and regularity further of Imaginathan to the features of the face; though to make the figure consistent and complete, the same happy mixture of the irregular and picturesque must have prevailed through her limbs and person; and consequently she must have hobbled as well as squinted; and had hips and shoulders as irregular as her teeth, cheeks, and eyebrows. All my friend's parental fondness for his system is certainly necessary to make him think such an assemblage of picturesque circumstances either lovely or attractive; or induce him to imagine, that he should be content with such a creature, as a companion for life; *The good old parson's daughter is made upon the model of her father's house: her features are as irregular, and her eyes are inclined to look across each other, like the roofs of the old parsonage; but a clear skin, clean white teeth, though not very even, and a look of neatness and cheerfulness, in spite of these irregularities, made me look at her with pleasure; and I really think, if I were of the cloth, I should like very well to take the living, the house, and its inhabitant." Dialog. p. 135.-"Here is a house and a woman without symmetry or beauty; and yet many might prefer them both to such as had infinitely more of what they and the world would acknowledge to be regularly beautiful." Ib. p. 136. CHAP. II. tion. PART II. and I heartily congratulate him that this fondness did not arise at an earlier period, to obstruct Of Imagina. him in a very different choice. Indeed, he seems to have still some remains of his former prejudices lurking about him: for he soon after uses the epithets beautiful and lovely, as synonymous; and defines the one by the other, in spite of all his philosophy of the picturesque *. says 80. This philosophy has, I confess, long puzzled me, in spite of the many discussions, which we have had to explain it. A single sentence, however, in his last publication, has given me a complete key to it. "All these ideas,” the interlocutor, who sustains his own part in his dialogue," are originally acquired by the touch; but from use they are become as much objects of sight as colours t." When there is so little discrimination between the operations of mind and the objects of sense, that ideas become objects of sight, all the rest follows of course; * "The most beautiful, that is, the most lovely." Dialog. p. 149. + Ib. p. 107. In all these passages, my friend equally mistakes ideas for things; and the effects of internal sympathies, for those of external circumstances; as he does through both his preceding volumes; and thence grounds the best practical lessons of taste upon false principles, and false philosophy. tion. and the different classes of beauty may be di- PART II. vided into as many distinct characters, as there CHAP. I. are distinct ideas; and be still progressively aug- Of Imaginamented with the augmentation of science, and extension of art. Beauty may also, in one page, be synonymous with loveliness; and yet, in another, loveliness may exist without beauty or symmetry, by means of certain qualities, which are analogous to beauty; such as a clear skin, and clean white teeth. These, however, in every other part of the work, are considered as real and positive beauties, not depending upon habit, as Sir Joshua Reynolds has supposed them to be; and as the facts, before cited, prove them to bet. When a squinting woman, however, without symmetry or beauty, was to be invested with a sufficient portion of sexual charms to render her capable of exciting affection and desire, those charms suddenly become qualities analogous to beauty; and, in this disguised and undefinable form, are slipped into a composition, with which they would otherwise have been found incompatible. 81. I do not mean, however, to deny that a *Dialog. p. 107. -illuc prævertamur, amatorem quod amica ↑ See part i. c. iii. s. 4. and c. v. s. 24. CHAP. II. tion. PART II. woman, with even greater personal defects than either hobbling or squinting, may, by the influOf Imagina- ence of sexual and social sympathies, be extremely interesting and attractive. The lovely and amiable Duchess of La Valiere is said, not only to have had bad teeth, but also, in consequence of an accident in her childhood, to have limped or hobbled in her gait; which, nevertheless, seemed to add to, rather than take away from the graces of her person*. Probably, however, it seemed so only to those, who, like her royal lover, were predisposed, by the influence of those graces, to approve every thing that she did: for this passion of love, how blind soever it may be, can at all times discover charms and graces, where ordinary discernment can only see faults and defects t. Imitative art separates these faults and defects from the magic, which recommends them in real life: for figures in stone or on canvass, excite too little either of social or sexual sympathy to engage the feelings of the man in support of the theories of the philosopher. The irregular movements of the monarch's lovely * "Elle boitoit un peu, mais il sembloit, qu'au lieu de nuire, ce defaut ajoutoit à ses grâces."-Fragm. de Lett. de Madame, &c. |