guished by some pleasing or interesting expression ; so the beauty of dress in any particular situation or character, depends upon this expression being suited to that character or situation.

3. No dress is ever considered as beautiful, in which the composition of the inferior colours is not adapted to the peculiar expression of the prevailing colour. The mere accumulation of different colours, without any regard to the general colour of the dress, every one knows to be proverbially expressive of ignorance and vulgarity. To suit these colours, on the other hand, to the prevailing colour, is considered as the great criterion of taste in this kind of composition. If you inquire, accordingly, why, in any particular case, such colours are not suited to the dress, you will be told, that they are either too glaring, too solemn, too gay, or too delicate, for the predominant colour; in other words, that they do not accord with the expression of the dress, and that on this account the composition is not beautiful. Wherever in this article, it is said, that colours either suit, or do not suit, what is meant or felt I believe is, that their expressions either agree or do not agree.

It is upon the same account that different colours in dress, admit of very different degrees of variety, in the composition of the subordinate colours. Rich colours admit of little variety. Grave or melancholy colours of less. Delicate colours admit more of contrast than of variety. Gay or cheerful colours demand a great proportion of variety. In all these cases, the proportion which is beautiful is that which accords with the peculiar nature of the emotion that the predominant colour excites. Strong emotions, and emotions which border upon pain, require uniformity in their objects. Rich,

or magnificent, or mournful dresses, require therefore a great proportion of uniformity in the composition of the colouring. Weak emotions require to be supported and enlivened. Dresses of a gentle or delicate character are therefore best illustrated by contrast. Emotions which belong to pleasure, demand variety in their objects. Dresses of a gay character, admit therefore of a greater proportion of variety in their colouring, than any of the others.

These slight hints (and the subject deserves no more) may perhaps lead the reader to conclude, that the beauty of dress (in so far as it relates to the composition of colours) depends upon the unity of expression: and that taste, in this respect, consists in the accurate perception of the expressions of colours, and of their relation both to each other, and to the character or situation of the person for whom they are destined.

There is one subject in which some attention to these principles might perhaps be productive of no unimportant effect: I mean in dramatic representation. Every one has perceived the impropriety of the greater part of the dresses which are seen upon the stage. The confusion of rich and tawdry, gay and grave drapery, in the same performance; the neglect of every kind of correspondence between the dress, and the character it distinguishes; comedy and tragedy clothed in the same colours; and instead of any relation among the different dresses of the same performance, or any correspondence to the character of that performance, each particular dress at variance with another, and all of them left to be determined by the caprice or vanity of the actor. If instead of this, we were to find in each distinguishing character, some agreement between the

expression of the dress and the nature of that character; if different ages, and professions, and situations, were attired with the same regard to propriety that we expect in real life; if the whole of the dresses in every particular performance had some relation to the character of that performance, and to the emotion it is destined to excite in our minds; if no greater degree of variety was admitted in this respect, than was consistent with this unity of expression; and if the whole were so imagined, as to compose a beautiful mass or group of colouring, in those scenes where any number of personages were assembled together; some addition, I conceive, would be given to the effect of an art, which has the capacity, at least, of becoming one of the most powerful means we know, both of strengthening virtue, and of communicating knowledge.

Whether the principle which I have now explained, may not extend to what is called the harmony of colouring in historical painting; whether the beauty of the prevailing colour is not dependent upon the agreement of its expression, with that peculiar expression or character which distinguishes the scene; and whether the beauty of the composition of the subordinate colours is not determined by its effect in preserving this unity of expression, I shall leave to be determined by those who are more learned in the art, and better acquainted with instances by which the truth of the observation may be tried.

SECTION II.

Of the Relative Beauty of Forms.

BESIDES those qualities of which forms in themselves are expressive to us, and which constitute what I have

called their NATURAL beauty, there are other qualities of which they are the signs, from their being the subjects of art, or produced by wisdom or design, for some end. Whatever is the effect of art, naturally leads us to the consideration of that art which is its cause, and of that end or purpose for which it was produced. When we discover skill or wisdom in the one, or usefulness or propriety in the other, we are conscious of a very pleasing emotion; and the forms which we have found by experience to be associated with such qualities, become naturally and necessarily expressive of them, and affect us with the emotions which properly belong to the qualities they signify. There is therefore an additional source of beauty in forms, from the expression of such qualities; which, for the sake of perspicuity, I shall beg leave to call their RELATIVE beauty.

Every work of design may be considered in one or other of the following lights :-Either in relation to the art or design which produced it-to the nature of its construction, for the purpose or end intended-or to the nature of the end which it is thus destined to serve; and its beauty accordingly depends, either upon the excellence or wisdom of this design, upon the fitness or propriety of this construction, or upon the utility of this end. The considerations of design, of fitness, and of utility, therefore, may be considered as the three great sources of the relative beauty of forms. In many cases, this beauty arises from all these expressions together; but it may be useful to consider them separately, and to remark the peculiar influence of each, upon the beauty of forms.

PART I.

Of the Influence of Design upon the Beauty of Forms.

I.

THAT the quality of design is in many cases productive of the emotion of beauty, seems to me too obvious to require any illustration. The beauty of design in a poem, in a painting, in a musical composition, or in a machine, are expressions which perpetually occur, both in books and in conversation, and which sufficiently indicate the cause or source of the emotion.

Wherever we discover fitness or utility, we infer the existence of design. In those forms, accordingly, which are distinguished by such qualities, the discovery of an end immediately suggests to us the belief of intention or design; and the same material qualities of form, which signify to us this fitness or usefulness, are the signs to us also of the design or thought which produced them.

It is obvious, however, that we often perceive the expression of design in forms, both in art and nature, in which we discover neither fitness nor utility. By what means then do we infer the existence of design in such cases; and are there any qualities of form, which are in themselves expressive to us of design and intention? I apprehend that there are; that there are certain qualities of form which are immediately and permanently expressive to us of these qualities of mind, and which derive their beauty from this expression.

1. In this view, it will easily be observed, that the