offends against the general character and proportion of the parts, whatever beyond the general rule is abrupt and extravagant in the swell or fall, is almost universally re"jected as not beautiful; because not answer-, ing to that medium standard which every one has erected in his own mind, and which he has collected from the exhibition of his species. There is therefore in the imagination of every one a standard, collected from observation, but insensibly and without design, to which he refers every form that attracts his attention, and agreeably to which he pronounces that it is beautiful or otherwise, and in what degree it pleases or offends. It is an ideal figure, which the eye of the mind can contemplate, and does contemplate, and does refer to, though the rational mind cannot describe this figure; because the figure has been imperceptibly formed, corrected, improved through life, in which the senses, and not reason, have been altogether employed. The ultimate figure, as a picture of the imagination, is

the abstract of all the impressions which have been received from a multitude of original forms; preserving what is characteristic of all, and rejecting whatever is incidental, excessive or defective, superinduced by violence or art, or in any respect offending against the general character of the form.

This perhaps is the secret foundation of what we call taste, or the perception of the beautiful, whether as referred to the human or to any other form whatever. I do not say that this is the only foundation, and that there is no other rule or principle, by which our estimation of the beautiful is influenced; but I think it to be the principal foundation: and the remarkable consentaneity of taste and decision of the beautiful, especially of the human figure, proves that our rule is derived from nature, from our constant observation of the originals, as they have issued from the forming hand of the great artist; and that, thus acquiring an abstract idea of the whole, we enter as it were, whether intending it or no, into the mind of

the

the artist himself, and erect a standard of what he designed as the most perfect, and therefore the most beautiful, in the form which he has given to man.

In this investigation of the standard of taste and the decision of the beautiful, although a general consent be acknowledged, yet it is manifest that the rule or standard will be more or less perfect, as the field of observation has been more or less extensive, and as successive comparisons with the standard already attained, and the introduction to more perfect forms, with fewer deviations from the medium character, have chastened in the imagination the picture of the beautiful. Every step in the progress towards this perfect image is the selection of a few from the general mass; from continued observation rejecting some from this few; admitting others; till the field of observation is exhausted, and we rest in the image which is the result of the whole.

But as the originals which are the subject of observation will in some respects vary,

from the influence which climate, occupation, manners, and even the cultivation of mind, have on the human form, it will follow that a variation in the idea of the beautiful is to be expected, and that different circumstances may be so favourable to some, as to render their conception of the beautiful more approximate to the faultless truth and standard of nature.

This secret and imperceptible progress. towards an ideal standard of beauty may be illustrated by the supposition of an experiment, easily to be conceived, though not easily to be carried into execution. If impressions from the faces of all the women in this kingdom at the age of twenty-one, were taken on any plastic substance, as suppose plaster of Paris; excluding however those who come into the world with obvious excess or defect, who have been maimed by injury, or blemished by any superinduced cause, as excess of labour or rest, intemperance, deficiency of sustenance, or any excess or defect of the passions of the mind;

and

and an artist were to form a face that was the mean of all these; it would surely be admitted that this face would be the perfect model of our national beauty. If the same experiment were made in other nations, excluding those in whom the extremes of climate necessarily induce a depravation of the form, the model of beauty in the female face would be equally obtained in these nations as their appropriate standard. And if from these several national standards the mean of them should also be taken, this last image must be admitted to be as perfect a representative of the beauty of face, of the whole female race, as is possible to be obtained.

This judgment is founded on the supposition that the design of the Creator is evidenced in his productions, and that the mean character of his productions of any species must approach the nearest to the perfect model contemplated in the Creator's mind. Our sense of beauty, our delight therein, can find its object only in the production of the Creator;

B 4

་