TION. mind of civilized man, that it is extremely dif- INTRODUCficult to discriminate them accurately; yet the pleasures of each, though mixed in their effects, are utterly distinct in their causes. 9. Perfect beauty, indeed, taking perfect in its most strict, and beauty in its most comprehensive signification, ought to be equally pleas→ ing to all; but of this instances are scarcely to be found: for, as to taking them, or, indeed, any examples for illustration, from the other sex of our own species, it is extremely fallacious; as there can be little doubt that all male animals think the females of their own species the most beautiful productions of Nature. At least, we know this to be the case among the different varieties of men, whose respective ideas of the beauty of their females are as widely dif ferent as those of man, and any other animal, can be. The sable Africans view with pity and contempt the marked deformity of the Europeans; whose mouths are compressed, their noses pinched, their cheeks shrunk, their hair rendered lank and flimsy, their bodies lengthened and emaciated, and their skins unnaturally bleached by shade and seclusion, and the baneful influence of a cold humid climate *. Were they to draw an * See Park's Journey to the Niger. A Birman describing a very ugly race of people to Captain Symes, the Eng TION. INTRODUC- image of female perfection, or a goddess of love and beauty, she would have a broad flat nose, high cheeks, woolly hair, a jet black skin, and squat thick form, with breasts reaching to her navel. To us imagination can scarcely present a more disgusting mass of deformity; but perhaps at Tomboctoo the fairest nymph of St. James's, who, while she treads the mazes of the dance, displays her light and slender form through transparent folds of muslin, might make the same impression; and who shall decide which lish ambassador, mentioned white teeth as a principal characteristic of their ugliness; the inhabitants of that empire, like those of many other countries of the East, staining their teeth black.-Voyage to Ava, c. x. p. 264. Mr. Hearne, who resided more than twenty years among the nations of the frozen regions of North America, says, "Ask a northern Indian what is beauty, he will answer, a broad flat face, small eyes, high cheek bones, three or four black lines across each cheek, a low forehead, a large broad chin, a clumsy hook nose, a tawny hide, and breasts hanging down to the belt." The same people were so far from thinking the whiteness of an European skin at all conducive to beauty, that it only excited in them the disgusting idea of dead flesh sodden in water till all the blood and juices were extracted. Journey from Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean, &c. p. 88 and 122. See various other opposite opinions on this subject, cited by Buffon, Hist. Nat. t. ii. p. 555, TION. party is right, or which is wrong; or whether INTRODUCthe black or white model be, according to the laws of nature, the most perfect specimen of a perfect woman? The late great physiologist, John Hunter, used to maintain (and I think he proved it), that the African black was the true original man, and all the others only different varieties derived from him, and more or less debased or improved. If so, what more infallible criterion can there be for judging of the natural taste and inclination of mankind, than the unsophisticated sentiments of the most natural and original of the species? We can neither weigh nor measure the results of feeling or sentiment; and can only judge whether they are just and natural, or corrupt and artificial, by comparing them with the general laws of nature; that is, with the general deductions, which we make from the particular operations of nature, which fall under our observation: for of the real laws of nature we know nothing; these deductions amounting to no more than rules of analogy of our own forming; by which, we judge of the future by the past, and form opinions of things, which we do not know, by things which we do. 10. It was, probably, from observing this marked difference, and even direct opposition of TION. INTRODUC tastes, in matters which affect the primary and innate sentiments of man, that an acute and ingenious sceptic has ventured to assert, that all beauty is merely ideal and imaginary, and not in any case an inherent quality in external objects. Beauty," says Mr. Hume," is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind, which contemplates them, and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others. To seek the real beauty or real deformity is as fruitless an inquiry, as to pretend to ascertain the real sweet or real bitter. According to the disposition of the organs the same object may be both sweet and bitter; and the proverb has justly determined it to be fruitless to dispute concerning tastes. It is very natural, and even quite necessary, to extend this axiom to mental as well as bodily taste; and thus common sense, which is often at variance with philosophy, especially with the sceptical kind, is found, in one instance at least, to agree in pronouncing the same decision." Whether this subtle philosopher has not, like many others, applied the analogy of sexual sympathy to things beyond its reach, and made his TION. negative axiom too general, will, perhaps, ap- INTRODUCpear in the following inquiry. At present I shall only remark, that the illustration, which he employs, of the confused sensations of morbid or vitiated organs, is quite unfair. To every sound and uncorrupted palate, sugar is sweet, and gall bitter; and though they may not be so to an individual labouring under disease, yet the exception is of that kind, which confirms instead of invalidating the general principle of discrimination. Even persons of the most vitiated palates, though they may prefer bitter to sweet, still agree in calling sweet, sweet, and bitter, bitter; and those who, through disease, find bitter in every thing, have the bitter really in their mouths, mixed with the saliva, and consequently incorporated with every thing that they taste. The African, who prefers a black complexion to a white one, perceives that it is black as clearly as we do; and black has the same analogy with darkness, in his eyes, as in ours, and consequently makes a similar impression, notwithstanding that it embellishes the charms, and increases the attractions, of his mistress. 11. The sexual desires of brutes are probably more strictly natural inclinations, and less changed or modified by the influence of acquired ideas, C |