CHAPTER THIRD. REMARKS ON SOME OF MR. BURKE'S PRINCIPLES WHICH DO NOT agree WITH THE FOREGOING CONCLUSIONS. AMONG the various writers who have turned their attention to the Beautiful, with a design to trace the origin, and to define the nature of that idea, there is, perhaps, none who has engaged in the inquiry with views more comprehensive and just than Mr. Burke; but, even with respect to him it may be fairly questioned, if any one of the conclusions to which he has been led concerning the causes of beauty, amounts to more than a critical inference, applicable to some particular class or classes of the phenomena in question. His In examining the opinions of this author, it seems to me extremely worthy of observation, that although his good sense has resisted completely the metaphysical mysteries of the schools, he has suffered himself to be led astray by a predilection for that hypothetical physiology concerning the connexion between mind and matter, which has become so fashionable of late years.* * generalizations, too, proceed on an assumption, not indeed so unlimited as that already quoted from the Encyclopædia, but yet much more extensive than the nature of the subject will admit of:-That, in the objects of all our different external senses, there is some common quality to which the epithet Beautiful may be applied; and that this epithet, in all these different cases, conveys the same meaning. Instead, for example, of supposing (agreeably to the doctrine which I have already suggested) that the epithet in question is applied This sort of philosophy was much in vogue, all over Europe, about the time when Mr. Burke's book first appeared ;-in consequence, perhaps, chiefly of the enthusiastic admiration every where excited by the Spirit of Laws, then recently published. The microscopical observations on the papillæ of a sheep's tongue, to which Montesquieu has there appealed in his reasonings concerning the operation of physical causes on the mind, bear a remarkable resemblance to some of the data assumed by Mr. Burke in his physiological conclusions with respect to our perception of the beautiful. Something, also, which looks like an imitation of the same great man, is observable in the extreme shortness and abruptness of the sections, which incessantly interrupt the natural flow of Mr. Burke's composition. to colors and to forms, in consequence of their both producing their pleasing effects through the medium of the same organ, he endeavours to show, that there is an analogy between these two classes of our pleasure; or, to use his own words, that "the beauty both of shape and coloring, are as nearly related as we can well suppose it possible for things of such different natures to be." In both cases, he asserts, that the beautiful object has a tendency to produce an agreeable relaxation in the fibres; and it is in this tendency that he conceives the essence of the Beautiful to consist. In farther illustration of this, he observes, "that smooth things are relaxing; that sweet things, which are the smooth of taste, are relaxing too; and that sweet smells, which bear a great affinity to sweet tastes, relax very remarkably." He adds, that "we often apply the quality of sweetness metaphorically to visual objects;" after which observation, he proposes, "for the better carrying on this remarkable analogy of the senses, to call sweetness the beautiful of the taste." In order to convey a still more adequate idea of Mr. Burke's mode of philosophizing on this subject, I shall quote a few of his remarks on the causes, "why smoothness and sweetness are beautiful." The quotation is longer than I could have wished; but I was unwilling to attempt an abridgement of it in my own words, from my anxiety that his reasoning should have all the advantages which it may derive from his peculiar felicity of expression. "There can be no doubt, that bodies which are rough and angular, rouse and vellicate the organs of feeling; causing a sense of pain, which consists in the violent tension or contraction of the muscular fibres. On the contrary, the application of smooth bodies relax :-gentle stroking with a smooth hand allays violent pains and cramps, and relaxes the suffering parts from their unnatural tension; and it has, therefore, very often, no mean effect in removing swellings and obstructions. The sense of feeling is highly gratified with smooth * Part III. sect. 17. bodies. A bed smoothly laid and soft, that is, where the resistance is every way inconsiderable, is a great luxury; disposing to an universal relaxation, and inducing, beyond any thing else, that species of it called sleep. "Nor is it only in the touch that smooth bodies cause positive pleasure by relaxation. In the smell and taste we find all things agreeable to them, and which are commonly called sweet, to be of a smooth nature,* and that they all evidently tend to relax their respective sensories. Let us first consider the taste. Since it is most easy to inquire into the properties of liquids, and since all things seem to want a fluid vehicle to make them tasted at all, I intend rather to consider the liquid than the solid parts of our food. The vehicles of all tastes are water and oil. And what determines the taste, is some salt which affects variously, according to its nature, or its manner of being combined with other things. Water and oil, simply considered, are capable of giving some pleasure to the taste. Water, when simple, is insipid, inodorous, colorless, and smooth; it is found, when not cold, to be a great resolver of spasms, and lubricator of the fibres: this power it probably owes to its smoothness. For, as fluidity depends, according to the most general opinion, on the roundness, smoothness, and weak cohesion of the component parts of any body, and, as water acts merely as a simple fluid, it follows, that the cause of its fluidity is likewise the cause of its relaxing quality; namely, the smoothness and slippery texture of its parts. The other fluid ve servation. On this part of his theory, Mr. Burke has very closely followed Lucretius, whose fancy anticipated the same hypothesis, without the aid of microscopical ob"Huc accedit, uti mellis lactisque liquores, Jucundo sensu linguæ, tractentur in ore; At contrà tetra absinthî natura, ferique Centaurî fœdo pertorquent ora sapore: Ut facilè agnoscas è lævibus, atque rotundis Esse ea, quæ sensus jucundè tangere possunt. At contrà, quæ amara, atque aspera, cunque videntur, Hæc magis hamatis inter se nexa teneri ; The continuation of the passage is not less curious. Lucret. Lib. II. v. 398. hicle of tastes is oil. This too, when simple, is insipid, inodorous, colorless, and smooth to the touch and taste. It is smoother than water, and, in many cases, yet more relaxing. Oil is, in some degree, pleasant to the eye, the touch, and the taste, insipid as it is. Water is not so grateful; which I do not know on what principle to account for, other than that water is not so soft and smooth. Suppose, that to this oil, or water, were added a certain quantity of a specific salt, which had a power of putting the nervous papilla of the tongue in a gentle vibratory motion; as suppose sugar dissolved in it; the smoothness of the oil, and the vibratory power of the salt, cause the sense we call sweetness. In all sweet bodies, sugar, or a substance very little different from sugar, is constantly found; every species of salt, examined by the microscope, has its own distinct, regular, invariable form. That of nitre is a pointed oblong; that of sea-salt an exact cube; that of sugar a perfect globe. If you have tried how smooth globular bodies, as the marbles with which boys amuse themselves, have affected the touch, when they are rolled backward and forward, and over one another, you will easily conceive, how sweetness, which consists in a salt of such nature, affects the taste; for a single globe, (though somewhat pleasant to the feeling) yet, by the regularity of its form, and the somewhat too sudden deviation of its parts from a right line, it is nothing near so pleasant to the touch as several globes, where the hand gently rises to one, and falls to another; and this pleasure is greatly increased, if the globes are in motion, and sliding over one another; for this soft variety prevents that weariness, which the uniform disposition of the several globes would otherwise produce. Thus, in sweet liquors, the parts of the fluid vehicle, though most probably round, are yet so minute, as to conceal the figure of their component parts from the nicest inquisition of the microscope; and, consequently, being so excessively minute, they have a sort of flat simplicity to the taste, resembling the effects of plain smooth bodies to the touch; for if a body be composed of round parts, excessively small, and packed pretty closely together, the surface will be, both to the sight and touch, as if it were nearly plain and smooth. It is clear, from their unveiling their figure to the microscope, that the particles of sugar are considerably larger than those of water or oil; and, consequently, that their effects, from their roundness, will be more distinct and palpable to the nervous papillæ of that nice organ the tongue. They will induce that sense, called sweetness, which, in a weak manner, we discover in oil, and in a yet weaker in water; for, insipid as they are, water and oil are, in some degree, sweet; and it may be observed, that insipid things of all kinds approach more nearly to the nature of sweetness, than to that of any other taste. "In the other senses, we have remarked that smooth things are relaxing. Now, it ought to appear, that sweet things, which are the smooth of taste, are relaxing too." "That sweet things are generally relaxing, is evident, because all such, especially those which are most oily, taken frequently, and in a large quantity, very much enfeeble the tone of the stomach. Sweet smells, which bear a great affinity to sweet tastes, relax very remarkably. The smell of flowers disposes people to drowsiness; and this relaxing effect is further apparent from the prejudice which people of weak nerves receive from their use." If this theory of Mr. Burke had led to no practical consequences, I should not have thought it worth while, notwithstanding its repugnance to my own opinions, to have made any reference to it here; but as it is intimately connected with some of his subsequent conclusions concerning Beauty, which I consider as not only unsound in their logical foundation, but as calculated to bias and mislead the Taste, I was anxious, before proceeding to an examination of these, to satisfy my readers, how little support they derive from the hypothetical disquisitions premised to them, in order to prepare the way for their more easy admission. As for the physiological discussion itself, I am inclined to think, that few, even of Mr. Burke's most partial admirers, will now be disposed to estimate its merits very highly. By some others, I would willingly believe, that it may be valued |