inftances proportion is connected with a ufeful end, as in animals, where the beft proportioned, are the strongest and most active: but inftances are still more numerous, where the proportions we relish have no connection with utility. Writers on architecture infist much upon the' proportions of a column, and affign different proportions to the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian: but no architect will maintain, that the moft accurate proportions contribute more to ufe, than feveral that are lefs accurate and lefs agreeable; neither will it be maintained, that the proportions affigned for the length breadth and height of rooms, tend to make them the more commodious. It appears then with refpect to the final cause of proportion, that we must rest upon the final caufe firit mentioned, viz. its contributing to our happiness, by increafing the beauty of vifible objects. It would be endless to enumerate the effects that are produced by the various combinations of the principles of beauty: I have room only for a flight fpecimen, confined to the fimpleft figures. A circle and a fquare are each of them perfectly regular, being equally confined to a precife form, which admits not the flighteft variation: a fquare however is lefs beautiful than a circle; and the reason I take to be, that the attention is divided among the fides and angles of a fquare, whereas the circumference of a circle, being a fingle object, makes one entire impreffion. And thus fimpli city contributes to beauty: which may be illuftrated by another example: a fquare, though not more regular than a hexagon or octagon, is more beautiful than either; for what other reafon, but that a fquare is more fimple, and the attention lefs divided? This reafoning will ap pear ftill more conclufive, when we confider any regular polygon of very many fides; for of this figure the mind can never have any diftinct perception. A square is more regular than a parallelogram, and its parts more uniform; and for thefe reafons, it is more beautiful. But this holds with refpect to intrinfic beauty only; for in many inftances, utility turns the fcales on the fide of the parallelogram: this figure for the doors and windows of a dwelling-houfe, is preferred becaufe of utility; and here we find the beauty of utility, prevailing over that of regularity and uniformity. A parallelogram again depends, for its beauty, on the proportion of its fides: a great inequality of fides annihilates its beauty: approximation toward equality hath the fame effect; for proportion there degenerates into imperfect uniformity, and the figure appears an unfuccessful attempt toward a fquare. And thus proportion contributes to beauty. An equilateral triangle yields not to a square in regularity, nor in uniformity of parts, and it is more fimple. But an equilateral triangle is lefs, beautiful די beautiful than a square; which must be owing to inferiority of order in the position of its parts: the fides of an equilateral triangle incline to each other in the fame angle, being the moft perfect order they are fufceptible of; but this order is obfcure, and far from being fo perfect as the parallelifm of the fides of a fquare. Thus order contributes to the beauty of visible objects, not lefs than fimplicity, regularity, or proportion. A parallelogram exceeds an equilateral triangle in the orderly difpofition of its parts; but being inferior in uniformity and fimplicity, it is lefs beautiful. Uniformity is fingular in one capital circumftance, that it is apt to difguft by excefs: a number of things deftin'd for the fame ufe, fuch as windows, chairs, fpoons, buttons, cannot be too uniform; for fuppofing their figure to be good, utility requires uniformity: but a fcrupulous uniformity of parts in a large garden or field, is far from being agreeable. Uniformity among connected objects, belongs not to the prefent fubject: it is handled in the chapter of uniformity and variety. In all the works of nature, fimplicity makes an illuftrious figure. It alfo makes a figure in works of art profufe ornament in painting, gardening, or architecture, as well as in drefs or in language, fhows a mean or corrupted tafte: . VOL. I. N Poets, Poets, like painters, thus unfkill'd to trace Pope's Effay on criticism. No fingle property recommends a machine more than its fimplicity; not folely for better anfwering its purpose, but by appearing in itself more beautiful. Simplicity in behaviour and manners has an inchanting effect, and never fails to gain our affection: very different are the artificial manners of modern times. General theorems, abstracting from their importance, are delightful by their fimplicity, and by the eafinefs of their application to a variety of cafes. We take equal delight in the laws of motion, which, with the greateft fimplicity, are boundlefs in their influence. A gradual progrefs from fimplicity to complex. forins and profufe ornament, seems to be the fate of all the fine arts; refembling behaviour, which, from original candor and fimplicity, has degenerated into artificial refinements. At prefent, literary productions are crowded with words, epithets, figures: in mufic, fentiment is neglected for the luxury of harmony, and for difficult movement in tafte properly fo called, poignant fauces with complicated mixtures of different favours, prevail among people of condition: the French, accustomed to the artificial red on their womens womens cheeks, think the modeft colouring of nature difplay'd on a fine face altogether infipid. The fame tendency appears in the progrefs of the fine arts among the ancients. Some veftiges of the oldest Grecian buil lings prove them to be of the Doric order: the lonic fucceeded, and feems to have been the favourite order, while architecture was in its height of glory the Corinthian came next in vogue; and in Greece, the buildings of that order, appear moftly to have been erected after the Romans got footing there. At laft came the Compofite with all its extravagancies, where fimplicity is facrificed to finery and crowded ornament. But what tafte is to prevail next? for fafhion is in a continual flux, and tafte muft vary with it. After rich and profufe ornaments become familiar, fimplicity appears lifeless and infipid; which would be an unfurmountable obstruction, fhould any man of genius and tafte endeavour to' restore ancient fimplicity. The diftinction between primary and fecondary. qualities in matter, feems now fully established. Heat and cold, fmell and taste, though feeming to exift in bodies, are difcovered to be effects caufed by these bodies in a fenfitive being: colour, which appears to the eye as fpread upon a fubftance, has no exiftence but in the mind of the fpectator. Qualities of this kind, which owe their existence to the percipient as much as to the object, are termed Secondary qualities; and |