business. But nature has at last escaped from their discipline and their fetters; and our gardens, if nothing elfe, declare, we begin to feel that mathematical ideas are not the true measures of beauty. And furely they are full as little fo in the animal, as the vegetable world. For is it not extraordinary, that in thefe fine defcriptive pieces, thefe innumerable odes and elegies which are in the mouths of all the world, and many of which have been the entertainment of ages, that in these pieces which defcribe love with fuch a paffionate energy, and reprefent its object in fuch an infinite variety of lights, not one word is said of proportion, if it be, what some infift it is, the principal component of beauty; whilft at the fame time, feveral other qualities are very frequently and warmly mentioned? But if proportion has not this power, it may appear odd how men came originally to be fo prepoffeffed in its favour. It arofe, I imagine, from the fondness I have juft mentioned, which men bear fo remarkably to their own works and notions; it arofe from false reasonings on the effects of the customary figure of animals; it arose from the Platonick theory of fitnefs and aptitude. For which reafon, in the next fection, I fhall confider the effects of cuftom in the figure of animals; and afterwards the idea of fitnefs: fince if proportion does not operate by a natural power attending fome measures, it must be either by custom, or the idea of utility; there is no other way.

SECT

1

SECT. V.

PROPORTION FURTHER CONSIDERED.

IF I am not mistaken, a great deal of the prejudice in favour of proportion has arisen, not fo much from the obfervation of any certain meafures found in beautiful bodies, as from a wrong idea of the relation which deformity bears to beauty, to which it has been confidered as the oppofite; on this principle it was concluded, that where the caufes of deformity were removed, beauty muft naturally and neceffarily be introduced. This I believe is a mistake. For deformity is oppofed not to beauty, but to the complete, common form. If one of the legs of a man be found fhorter than the other, the man is deformed; becaufe there is fomething wanting to complete the whole idea we form of a man; and this has the fame effect in natural faults, as maiming and mutilation produce from accidents. So if the back be humped, the man is deformed; because his back has an unusual figure, and what carries with it the idea of fome disease or misfortune; fo if a man's neck be confiderably longer or fhorter than ufual, we fay he is deformed in that part, because -men are not commonly made in that manner. But furely every hour's experience may convince us, that a man may have his legs of an equal length,

and

and resembling each other in all refpects, and his neck of a just size, and his back quite straight, without having at the fame time the leaft perceivable beauty. Indeed beauty is fo far from belonging to the idea of custom, that in reality what affects us in that manner is extremely rare and uncommon. The beautiful ftrikes us as much by its novelty as the deformed itself. It is thus in thofe fpecies of animals with which we are acquainted; and if one of a new fpecies were reprefented, we fhould by no means wait until cuftom had fettled an idea of proportion, before we decided concerning its beauty or uglinefs: which fhews that the general idea of beauty can be no more owing to customary than to natural proportion. Deformity arifes from the want of the common proportions; but, the neceffary refult of their existence in any object is not beauty. If we fuppofe proportion in natural things to be relative to custom and use, the nature of use and cuftom will fhew, that beauty, which is a pofitive and powerful quality, cannot refult from it. We are fo wonderfully formed, that, whilft we are creatures vehemently defirous of novelty, we are as ftrongly attached to habit and cuftom. But it is the nature of things which hold us by cuftom, to affect us very little whilft we are in poffeffion of them, but ftrongly when they are abfent. I remember to have frequented a certain place, every day for a long time together;

together; and I may truly fay, that fo far from finding pleasure in it, I was affected with a fort of wearinefs and difguft; I came, I went, I returned, without pleasure; yet if by any means I paffed by the ufual time of my going thither, I was remarkably uneafy, and was not quiet till I had got into my old track. They who ufe fnuff, take it almost without being fenfible that they take it, and the acute fenfe of fmell is deadened, fo as to feel hardly any thing from so sharp a stimulus; yet deprive the fnuff-taker of his box, and he is the most uneafy mortal in the world. Indeed fo far are use and habit from being caufes of pleasure, merely as fuch, that the effect of constant use is to make all things of whatever kind entirely unaffecting. For as ufe at laft takes off the painful effect of many things, it reduces the pleasurable effect in others in the fame manner, and brings both to a fort of mediocrity and indifference. Very juftly is ufe called a fecond nature; and our natural and common state is one of abfolute indifference, equally prepared for pain or pleasure. But when we are thrown out of this ftate, or deprived of any thing requifite to maintain us in it; when this chance does not happen by pleasure from fome mechanical caufe, we are always hurt. It is fo with the second nature, custom, in all things which relate to it. Thus the want of the ufual proportions in men and other animals is fure to disgust, though their presence is

by

by no means any caufe of real pleasure. It is true, that the proportions laid down as causes of beauty in the human body, are frequently found in beautiful ones, because they are generally found in all mankind; but if it can be fhewn too, that they are found without beauty, and that beauty, frequently exifts without them, and that this beauty, where it exists, always can be affigned to other lefs equivocal caufes, it will naturally lead us to conclude, that proportion and beauty are not ideas of the fame nature. The true opposite to beauty is not difproportion or deformity, but ugliness; and as it proceeds from caufes oppofite to those of po fitive beauty, we cannot confider it until we come to treat of that. Between beauty and uglinefs there is a fort of mediocrity, in which the affigned proportions are most commonly found; but this has no effect. upon the paffions.

SECT. VI.

FITNESS NOT THE CAUSE OF BEAUTY.

IT is faid that the idea of utility, or of a part's being well adapted to answer its end, is the cause of beauty, or indeed beauty itself. If it were not for this opinion, it had been impoffible for the doctrine of proportion to have held its ground very long; the world would be foon weary of hearing of measures which related to nothing,