doctrine, by a furprising number of inftances. The one is the waving line, or a curve bending backwards and forwards, fomewhat in the form of the letter S. This he calls the line of beauty; and fhews how often it is found in fhells, flowers, and fuch other ornamental works of nature; as is common alfo in the figures defigned by painters and fculptors, for the purpofe of decoration. The other line, which he calls the line of grace, is the former waving curve, twisted round fome folid body. The curling worm of a common jack is one of the inftances he gives of it. Twifted pillars, and twisted horns, also exhibit it. In all the inftances which he mentions, variety plainly appears to be fo material a principle of beauty, that he feems not to err much when he defines the art of drawing pleafing forms, to be the art of varying well. For the curve line, fo much the favourite of painters, derives, according to him, its chief advantage, from its perpetual bending and variation from the stiff regularity of the straight line. "Motion furnishes another fource of beauty, diftinct from figure. Motion of itself is pleafing; and bodies in motion are, "cæteris paribus," preferred to thofe in reft. It is, however, only gentle motion that belongs to the beautiful; for when it is very fwift, or very forcible, fuch as that of a torrent, it partakes of the fublime. The motion of a bird gliding through the air, is extremely beautiful; the swiftnefs with which lightning darts through the heavens, is magnificent and aftonishing. And here, it is proper to oblerve, that the fenfations of fublime and beautiful are not always diftinguished by very diftant boundaries; but are capable, in feveral inftances, of approaching towards each other. Thus, a fmooth running ftream, is one of the most beautiful objects in nature: as it fwells gradually into a great river, the beautiful, by degrees, is loft in the fublime. A young tree is a beautiful object; a fpreading antient oak, is a venerable and a grand one. The calmnefs of a fine morning is beautiful; the univerfal ftillness of the evening is highly fublime. But to return to the beauty of motion, it will be found, I think, to hold very generally, that motion in a ftraight line is not fo beautiful as in an undulating waving direction; and motion upwards is, commonly too, more agreeable than motion downwards. The cafy curling motion of flame and smoke may be inftanced, as an object fingularly agreeable and here Mr. Hogarth's waving line recurs upon us as a principle of beauty. That artift obferves very ingenioufly, that all the common and neceffary motions for the bufinefs of life, are performed by men in ftraight or plain lines; but that all the graceful and ornamental movements are made in waving lines; an obfervation not unworthy of being attended to, by all who ftudy the grace of geiture and action. "Though colour, figure, and motion, be feparate principles of beauty; yet in many beautiful objects they all meet, and thereby render the beauty both greater, and more complex. Thus, in flowers, trees, animals, we are entertained at once with the delicacy of the colour, with the gracefulness of the figure, and fometimes alfo with the motion of the object. Although each of thefe produce a feparate agreeable fenfation, yet they are of fuch a fimilar nature, as readily to mix and blend in one general perception of beauty, which we afciibe to the whole object as its caufe: for G 2 beauty beauty is always conceived by us, as fomething refiding in the object which raifes the pleafant fenfation; a fort of glory which dwells upon, and invests it. Perhaps the most complete affemblage of beautiful objects that can any where be found, is prefented by a rich natural landfcape, where there is a fufficient variety of objects: fields in verdure, fcattered trees and flowers, running water, and animals grazing. If to thefe be joined, fome of the productions of art, which fuit fuch a scene; as a bridge with arches over a river, finoke rifing from cottages in the midst of trees, and the diftant view of a fine building feen by the rifing fun; we then enjoy, in the highest perfection, that gay, cheerful, and placid fenfation which characterifes beauty. To have an eye and a tafte formed for catching the peculiar beauties of fuch fcenes as thefe, is a neceffary requifite for all who at tempt poetical defcription. "The beauty of the human countenance is more complex than any that we have yet confidered. It includes the beauty of colour, arifing from the delicate fhades of the complexion; and the beauty of figure, arifing from the lines which form the different features of the face. But the chief beauty of the countenance depends upon a myfterious expreffion, which it conveys of the qualities of the mind; of good fenfe, or good humour; of fprightlinefs, candour, benevolence, fenfibility, or other amiable difpofitions. How it comes to pafs, that a certain conformation of features is connected in our idea with certain moral qualities; whether we are taught by inftinct, or by experience, to form this connection, and to read the mind in the countenance; belongs not to us now to enquire, nor is indeed eafy to refolve. The fact is certain, and acknowleged, that what gives the human countenance its most diftinguifhing beauty, is what is called its expreflion; or an image, which it is conceived to fhew of interna! moral difpofitions. "This leads to observe, that there are certain qualities of the mind which, whether expreffed in the countenance, or by words, or by actions, always raife in us a feeling fimilar to that of beauty. There are two great claffes of moral qualities; one is of the high and the great virtues, which require extraordinary ef forts, and turn upon dangers and fufferings; as heroifin, magnanimity, contempt of pleafures, and contempt of death. Thefe, as I have observed in a former lecture, excite in the fpectator an emotion of fublimity and grandeur. The other clafs is generally of the focial virtues, and fuch as are of a fofter and gentler kind; as compaffion, mildnefs, friendfhip, and generofity. These raise in the beholder a fenfation of pleasure, fo much akin to that produced by beautiful external objects, that, though of a more dignified nature, it may, without impropriety, be claffed under the fame head. "A fpecies of beauty, diftin&t from any I have yet mentioned, arifes from defign or art; or, in other words, from the perception of means being adapted to an end; or the parts of any thing being well fitted to answer the design of the whole. When, in confidering the ftructure of a tree or a plant, we obferve how all the parts, the roots, the ftem, the bark, and the leaves, are fuited to the growth and nutriment of the whole: much more when we furvey all the parts and members of a living animal; or when we examine any of the curious works of art; fuch as a clock, a fhip, or any nice machine; the pleafure which we have in the furvey, is wholly found ed on this fenfe of beauty. It is altogether different from the perception of beauty produced by colour, figure, variety, or any of the caufes formerly mentioned. When I look at a watch, for instance, the cafe of it, if finely engraved, and of curious workmanship, ftrikes me as beautiful in the former fenfe; bright colour, exquifite polifh, figures finely raifed and turned. But when I examine the conftruction of the fpring and the wheels, and praife the beauty of the internal machinery; my pleasure then arifes wholly from the view of that admirable art, with which fo many various and complicated parts are made to unite for one purpofe, [101] Our fenfe of appearing deformed, fitnefs and defign, therefore, is fo powerful, and holds fo high a rank among our perceptions, as to regulate, in a great meafure, our other ideas of beauty: I the rather make, as it is of the an obfervation which utmost importance, that all who ftudy compofition fhould carefully attend to it. For, in an epic poem, a hiftory, an oration, or any work of genius, we always require, as we do in other works, a fitness, or adjustment of means, which the author is fuppofed to have. to the end in view. Let his defcriptions be elegant, yet, if they are out of ever fo rich, or his figures ever fo place, if they are not proper parts main defign, they lofe all their of that whole, if they fuit not the beauty; nay, from beauties they power has our fenfe of fitnefs and are converted into deformities. Such congruity, to produce a total tranfformation of an object whofe appearance otherwife would have been beautiful. "This fenfe of beauty, in fitness and design, has an extenfive influence over many of our ideas. It is the foundation of the beauty which we difcover in the proportion of doors, windows, arches, pillars, and all the orders of architecture. Let the ornaments of a building be ever fo fine and elegant in themfelves, yet if they interfere with this fenfe of fitnefs and defign, they lofe their beauty, and hurt the eye, like difagreeable objects. Twisted columns, for inftance, are undoubtedly ornamental; but as they have an appear ance of weakness, they always difplease when they are made ufe of to fupport any part of a building that is maffy, and that feemed to require a more fubftantial prop. We cannot look upon any work whatever, without being led, by a natural af fociation of ideas, to think of its end and defign, and of courfe to examine the propriety of its parts, in relarion to this defign and end. When their propriety is clearly difcerned, the work feems always to have fome beauty; but when there is a total want of propriety, it never fails of many various fpecies of beauty, it "After having mentioned fo now only remains to take notice of beauty as it is applied to writing or difcourfe; a term commonly used in mined. a fenfe altogether loofe and undeterpleafes, either in ftyle or in fentiFor it is applied to all that pleafure flows; and a beautiful poem ment, from whatever principle that or oration means, in common language, no other than a good one, or one well compofed. In this fenfe, it is plain, the word is altogether indefinite, and points at no particu lar fpecies or kind of beauty. There is, however, another fenfe, fomewhat more definite, in which beauty of writing characterifes a particular manner; when it is ufed to fignify turn either of ftyle or fentiment, for a certain grace and amenity in the G 3 which which fome authors have been peculiarly diftinguifhed. In this fenfe, it denotes a manner neither remarkably fublime, nor vehemently paffionate, nor uncommonly fparkling; but fuch as raifes in the reader an emotion of the gentle placid kind, fimilar to what is raifed by the contemplation of beautiful objects in nature; which neither lifts the mind very high, nor agitates it very much, but diffufes over the imagination an agreeable and pleafing ferenity. Mr. Addifon is a writer altogether of this character; and is one of the most proper and precife examples that can be given of it. Fenelon, the author of the Adventures of Telemachus, may be given as another example. Virgil too, though very capable of rifing on occafions into the fublime, yet in his general manner, is diftinguished by the cha racter of beauty and grace, rather than of fublimity. Among orators, Cicero has more of the beautiful than Demofthenes, whofe genius led him wholly towards vehemence and ftrength." OBSERVATIONS on MODERN ELOQUENCE. S there is nothing more that ticular attention in the middle age, I pafs now to the state of eloquence in modern times. Here, it must be confeffed, that, in no European nation, public fpeaking has been confidered as fo great an object, or been cultivated with fo much care, as in Greece or Rome. Its reputation has never been fo high; its effects have never been fo confiderable; nor has that high and fublime kind of it, which prevailed in thofe ancient ftates, been fo much as aimed at notwithstanding, too, that a new profeffion has been eftab. lifhed, which gives peculiar advantages to oratory, and affords it the nobleft field; I mean, that of the church. The genius of the world feems, in this refpect, to have undergone fome alteration. The two countries where we might expect to find most of the fpirit of eloquence, are France and Great Britain: France, on account of the diftinguished turn of the nation towards all the liberal arts, and of the encouragement arts have received from the public; Great Britain, on account both of the public capacity and genius, and of the free government which it enjoys. Yet, fo it is, that, in neither of thefe countries, has the talent of public fpeaking rifen near to the degree of its ancient fplendor. While, in the other productions of genius, both in profe and in poetry, they have contended for the prize with Greece and Rome; nay, in fome compofitions, may be thought to have furpaffed them: the names of Demofthenes and Cicero, ftand, at this day, unrivalled in fame; and it would be held prefumptuous and abfurd, to pretend to place any modern whatever on the fame, or even on a nearly equal, rank. "It feems particularly furprifing, that Great Britain thould not have made a more confpicuous figure in eloquence than it has hitherto attained; when we confider the en lightened, and, at the fame time, the critics. In the fame manner, in the pulpit, the British divines have diftinguished themselves by the most accurate and rational compofitions which, perhaps, any nation can boaft of. Many printed fermons we have, full of good fenfe, and of found divinity and morality; but the eloquence to be found in them, the power of perfuafion, of interefting and engaging the heart, which is or ought to be the great object of the pulpit, is far from bearing a fuitable proportion to the excellence of the matter. There are few arts, in my opinion, farther from perfection, than that of preaching is among us; the reafons of which, I fhall afterwards have occafion to difcufs: in proof of the fact, it is fuf ficient to obferve, that an English fermon, inftead of being a perfuafive animated oration, feldom rifes beyond the ftrain of correct and dry reafoning. Whereas, in the fermons of Boffuet, Maffillon, Bourdaloue, and Flechier, among the French, we fee a much higher fpecies of eloquence aimed at, and 'in a great measure attained, than the British preachers have in view. the free and bold genius of the country, which feems not a little to favour oratory; and when we confider that, of all the polite nations, it alone poffeffes a popular government, or admits into the legiflature, fuch numerous affemblies as can be fuppofed to lie under the dominion of eloquence. Notwithstanding this advantage, it must be confeffed, that, in most parts of eloquence, we are undoubtedly inferior, not only to the Greeks and Romans by many degrees, but also to the French. We have philofophers, eminent and confpicuous, perhaps, beyond any nation, in all the parts of fcience. We have both taste and erudition, in a high degree. We have hiftorians, we have poets of the greatest name; but of orators, or public fpeakers, how little have we to boat? and where are the monuments of their genius to be found? In every period we have had fome who made a fi gure, by managing the debates in parliament; but that figure was commonly owing to their wifdom, or their experience in business, more than to their talents for oratory; and unless, in fome few inftances, wherein the power of oratory has appeared, indeed, with much luftre, the art of parliamentary fpeaking rather obtained to feveral a temporary applaufe, than conferred upon any a lafting renown. At the bar, though, queftionless, we have many able pleaders, yet few or none of their pleadings have been thought worthy to be tranfmitted to pofterity; nor have commanded attention, any longer than the cause, which was the fubject of them, interested the public; while, in France, the pleadings of Patru, in the former age, and thofe of Cochin and D'Agueffeau, in later times, are read with pleafure, and are often quoted as examples of eloquence by the French "In general, the characteristical difference between the ftate of eloquence in France and Great Britain, is, that the French have adopted higher ideas both of pleafing and perfuading by means of oratory, though, fometimes, in the execu tion they fail. In Great Britain, we have taken up eloquence on a lower key; but in our execution, as was naturally to be expected, have been more correct. In France, the ftyle of their orators is ornamented with bolder figures; and their difcourfe carried on with more amplification, more warmth and elevation. The compofition is often very beautiful; but fometimes, alfo, too diffufe, and deficient in that itrength G 4 and |