A human form has all the beauty of strict proportion, when nothing hurts us in its form, and when no impropriety appears in any of its members for the physical ends, for which the form, either in nature or art, is designed.

A human form, on the contrary, has only the beauty of character, when some amiable or interesting disposition of mind is expressed by it, and when we perceive a positive relation between the expression of every different member, and the expression of the general character.

Some attention to this distinction may perhaps be of use both to the man of genuine taste, and to the artist. It may relieve the first from the trammels of technical language, and raise him to higher speculations than the usual schools of art permit or employ: and it may teach the latter, that his ambition is only to be gratified when he can excite the sympathies of mankind, and make the human form expressive of all that the human mind can either exert or feel.

I finish this long section, by stating the general conclusions, with regard to the beauty that is peculiar to the form of man, which seem to follow from the considerations I have suggested.

I.

That the beauty or sublimity of the human form, does not arise from any original and essential beauty in this form, or in its composition.

II.

That there is a negative species of beauty necessary

to every beautiful form, but not constituting it, which arises from the expression of physical fitness or propriety.

III.

That the real and positive beauty of the form arises from its expression of some amiable or interesting character of mind, and that the degree of this beauty is proportionate to the degree in which this character is interesting or affecting to us. And,

IV.

That the beauty of composition in the human form arises (as in all other cases) from the unity of expression; and that the law by which we determine the beauty of the several members of this form, is that of their correspondence to the peculiar nature of the characteristic expression.

SECTION IV.

Of the Sublimity and Beauty of Attitude and Gesture. BESIDE the general beauty of form which I have considered, there are various emotions of beauty felt from peculiar POSITIONS, or MOTIONS of the human body. The first of these constitutes the beauty of attitude, the second the beauty of gesture.

The proper expression of form is that of the permanent character or disposition of mind. The expressions, on the contrary, of attitude and of gesture, are those of temporary or occasional passion or affection. They have, therefore, the same relation to the expression of the general form, that the variable colours and features of the countenance have to the expression of the general countenance.

I have only farther to premise, that proportion, or that proper conformation of parts, which is necessary for the purposes of the animal frame, is as essential to the beauty of attitude and gesture, as it is to that of form in general. No form can be beautiful which is disproportioned; but every form that is proportioned is not beautiful. In the same manner, no attitude or gesture can properly be beautiful in a form which is disproportioned or deformed: but every attitude or gesture in a well proportioned form is not felt as beautiful. For this beauty, therefore, we must search for other causes.

Whatever may be the result of our investigation, it is to be observed, in the first place, that in this case, as in the foregoing case of form, there are two very distinct expressions, which any attitude or gesture may signify

to us.

1. The first is that of ease or constraint, of physical pleasure or physical pain. Our knowledge of this expression is derived from all the sources of our knowledge, from our own experience, from our sympathy with others, and from their language and analogous experience. There is no child, perhaps, who does not immediately perceive, from the attitudes or gestures of others, whether they are easy or constrained; and who does not feel pain when he witnesses any gesture or attitude which seems to him forced or extreme. The same principle guides us in a still greater degree in maturity. And in the fine arts, in those representations of human form or action, where something greater and more perfect than ordinary nature is attempted to be produced, we still feel that ease is necessary to the beauty either of attitude or gesture; and that we are

incapable of entering into the full expression of the form, if any thing harsh or constrained appears in its composition. Of the truth of this proposition, I shall enter into no farther explanation. I have only to add, that while it is an expression necessary to the beauty either of attitude or gesture, it does not constitute this beauty. Many attitudes and gestures may be easy easy and unconstrained, but they are not therefore beautiful. In every mechanical profession, ease is acquired by the labourers or artists; but the attitudes or gestures which such professions exhibit, are not therefore beautiful. In the common business of life, we every where see ease in the performance of it, but we do not every where see beauty in gesture or attitude.

The expression, therefore, of ease or facility, is necessary to the beauty of attitude or gesture, in the same manner as that of proportion is to the beauty of form. It is the negative beauty of gesture and attitude, because without it this beauty cannot exist; but as it does not of itself constitute it, we must look to other causes for the origin of their positive beauty.

2. The second great expression of which attitude and gesture in the human form are significant to us, is that of passion, or emotion; or of some pleasing or interesting quality of an intellectual or moral mind. That such expressions of mind do exist; that in our earliest years we interpret the sentiments of the minds of others, from the external appearances of their gesture or attitude, that, whether an original or acquired language, it is yet a language which all men understand; that in the defect of artificial language it is the universal language, to which all men instinctively have recourse, and which all men as instinctively comprehend: that

the attitudes, in short, of majesty, fortitude, hope, love, pity, despondence, &c.; and that the gestures of gaiety, mirth, rapture, anger, revenge, melancholy, despair, &c. are intelligible to mankind, without any previous instruction; and that, when they are understood, they convey the peculiar emotions which the affections of mind they signify are fitted to convey, are propositions so plain, and so universally acknowledged, that I cannot detain my readers by any formal illustration of them.

The object which I have in view, is, to solicit them to observe, that all the positive beauty or sublimity which they experience in such attitudes or gestures, is finally to be ascribed to the characters or dispositions of mind of which they are significant.

I.

If there were any gestures or attitudes of the human form which were necessarily and originally beautiful, it would follow that such gestures or attitudes of beauty might be found under every variety of expression. If, on the contrary, the beauty of these conformations arises from the expressions of mind which they signify, then it ought to follow, that no gestures or attitudes should be beautiful that are not expressive of interesting or amiable affections.

For the determination of this question, the most ignorant man has all the knowledge that is necessary. Every man can distinguish between the attitudes or gestures of amiable or unamiable dispositions; between the attitudes or gestures of gaiety, gentleness, pity, humility, &c. and those of fear, rage, envy, pride, cruelty, &c. Of all these various attitudes and gestures, the human form is susceptible. The only