CHAPTER XXII. ON THE CHIEF METAPHYSICAL WRITERS WHO HAVE TREATED OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL; AND ON THE PRINCIPLES WHICH GUIDE OUR JUDGMENT IN ALL MATTERS OF TASTE AND SENTIMENT. WE have hitherto refrained from noticing, in this work, in any formal and lengthened manner, a numerous class of mental speculations, connected with our ideas of the sublime and beautiful. Our original design was to collect and discuss such speculations under one general head, that the reader might have a clear and concise idea of their nature and character, and the station they hold in the history of intellectual philosophy. This design we are now about to carry into execution. Every thing connected with the sublime and beautiful in nature and art, belongs to the science of mind; and when we look at the subject in all its extent, we cannot fail to perceive, that what is beautiful and sublime, agreeable and disagreeable, meritorious and blameable, form nine-tenths of the entire stock of ideas current among mankind. These ideas differ essentially from those which constitute pure abstract principles, formal propositions, and long chains of deductive reasoning. Our pleasurable and painful sensations and emotions partake of the nature of sudden and instinctive impulses; they form the basis of numerous arts which minister to the embellishments and happiness of life; and, in fact, make up, as it were, a large proportion of what may be considered as the staple of human existence. They seem to the outward eye irregular, capricious, and infinitely diversified; but still a careful examination will show, that they are under the regulation and control of first principles, which act with all the steadiness and certainty which characterise the material laws of the universe, or the intellectual laws of intuition and abstract thought. The operations of the human mind may be viewed under an almost endless variety of aspects; and all of them calculated to afford great pleasure and instruction. Those operations directly and indirectly connected with our ideas of the sublime and beautiful, have, in all ages of the world, been invested with a peculiar degree of interest. They have been especial objects of philosophical inquiry, and have exercised the talents of some of the ablest and wisest men who adorn the page of history. The mental principles connected with objects of praise and censure, and sublimity and beauty, stand so prominently out in the intellectual landscape, that there are very few persons indeed who feel any pleasure at all in cultivating an acquaintance with the nature of their own minds, but must have paid some attention to matters so obtrusively forced upon their observation. Besides, objects and qualities which become invested with the attributes of beauty and deformity, are not things of mere speculative curiosity, but possess an interest of a more homely and vital character. They are necessarily connected, through the instrumentality of human laws, institutions, and public sentiment, with rewards and punishments, both bodily and mental; and, on this account, they possess an interest altogether apart from their mere speculative nature or character. Ideas of this kind have been often subjected to definition by various writers; but mere definitions of this description must always be more or less inadequate. This arises from the nature of the mind itself. But to the ordinary mass of mankind these notions of the sublime and beautiful are sufficiently distinct and impressive, and no very great mistake or discrepancy of judgment is ever made concerning them. They perform their office in the intellectual and moral economy of the universe, with certainty, regularity, and effect. The feeling, or notion, or idea of sublimity, call it by what name you will, fills the mind with admiration and a pleasing astonishment. When under its influence, we feel a species of mental elevation and expansion, a joyful glow of satisfaction, and a conscious effort to take a more comprehensive view of things in general, than under ordinary circumstances. This every one may experience by reflecting on what passes in his own mind. Whenever this feeling is experienced, it is in connexion with certain things. These are principally magnitude, height, depth, and particular kinds and combinations of sounds. A lofty mountain, a large building, a broad river, loud sounds, like thunder, cannon, &c., earthquakes, volcanoes, a large and powerful organ in a cathedral, a great crowd of people, vast numbers of soldiers, battle ships, deep and large caverns, the starry heavens, over-hanging precipices, and a thousand other things, excite the feelings of sublimity in the mind of the spectator. But these are but the exciting causes, not the real ones, as we shall afterwards attempt to prove. The feelings and emotions of beauty are of an agreeable and pleasing kind. They perhaps are of the same nature as those of the sublime, only softened down, mellowed, and subdued, by objects of lesser magnitude and interest. We speak of a beautiful lady, a beautiful rose, a beautiful language, and a beautiful poem. What is termed visible beauty seems to be excited by four things, colours, figure, attitude or gesture, and motion. The beautiful may be combined with the sublime in which case our feelings and emotions are of a more pleasurable and intense description. Colours are beautiful when they produce lively sensations in our minds. White and red create these. Green is soft and refreshing to the eye, being an organ of great delicacy and complexity. Pale red, and light blue, leave soft and gentle impressions. All those gradations of colours we see in the heavens, in flowers, in the plumage of birds, the rainbow, &c., are productive of the most delightful and pleasant sensations. The extreme delicacy with which they are mixed and blended together, which far exceeds anything that man can do, is an additional ingredient in our pleasures derived from this source. Particular figures and forms are beautiful, as circles, squares, ellipses, hexagons, &c. Irregularities in figures are not generally beautiful. There are, however, exceptions to this rule. Attitudes and gestures of living things convey to us ideas of beauty, when they are suitable to the nature of the person or creature. They must be agreeable, natural, and easy, without constraint, affectation, or vulgarity. Motion is productive of beauty in inanimate things. The motion of the clouds, smoke slowly ascending in the sky, the unbroken waves of the sea, and flags and streamers flying in the wind. The sources of the sublime and beautiful we have just enumerated, may be termed the external sources, arising out of the particular confirmation of the material universe. But these are not the exclusive sources of beauty and sublimity. There are mental, moral, and religious sources, all of which are prolific, to an almost boundless extent, of notions and feelings of the grand and agreeable. From these fountains we have poetry, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, the drama, the intellectual endowments of men, their moral conduct and behaviour; religion, natural and revealed, |