DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0094
so
BEAUTY.
they call goitres, and of which some are very near as big as their heads. The first Sunday after
he had recovered of his illness, he went to their church (being a Roman Catholic) to return thanks
to heaven for his deliverance. A man of so good a figure, and so well dressed, had probably never
before been within the walls of their chapel. Every body's eyes were fixed upon him, and as he
went out, they cried loud enough for him to hear them ;—u O, how completely handsome would
that man be if he had but a goitre!"
The Laplanders, and their Northern neighbours, have broad flat faces and broken sunken noses.
The greater part of them are not above four feet high, with a head whose dimensions are full
one fifth of their whole figure. The Tartars have large wr inkled faces, even in youth ; short
thick noses, high cheeks, and long prominent chins. The Chinese, though with short and broad
visages, differ from the Tartars. They have small e}res, large eye-lids, sunken noses, a very scanty
beard on each lip, and scarcely any on the chin : the women have small eyes, broken noses, and
large ears. All these, as well as the Negro, Hottentot, native American, and polished European,
are equally thankful to Providence for that portion of beauty with which he has endowed them.
They complacently admire every part of their form and diversity of feature, and deplore the want
of it in their deformed, ungraceful neighbours.
Seeing that our judgment is so liable to err in fixing a criterion of this amiable quality, it may
by some be inferred, that beauty is more dependant on fancy than upon judgment; this is not
universally true. Fancy, it must be confessed, has more to do writh the two inferior parts, form
and colour, than with expression and grace, which are of a more determinate and precise nature,
visible in exery countenance, and affecting to every beholder, without any regard to time or place,
We are equally struck with these qualities, in an highly-finished piece, though of the most re-
mote antiquity or distant country, as with the representations of the same qualities in a character
of our own a°;e and nation.
This diversity of sentiment is a wise dispensation of the author of our nature: it renders the
peevish animal, man, discontented in every other respect, in general highly pleased with himself;
and also prevents the devastation and universal destruction which would ensue from a perfect
unanimity of opinion with regard to the object of the greatest beauty. It creates a sort of universal
beauty, greatly enlarges its objects, and offers to every one that which may best suit his taste.
But there is another character yet unmentioned, often attempted by the artist, viz. Deity.
It has been much controverted by divines, whether an endeavour at the delineation of the Supreme
Being were justifiable. Among artists, however, the matter has been long decided, who unani-
mously agree in its impracticability. No traits or outlines can characterise the greatest and best of
beings; the eternal first cause; the I am.—No colours can represent that light in which there is no
darkness at all. The highly favoured Israelites, who, from the voice of divinity itself, received that
code of laws which characterise his worshippers, yet saw no similitude, but were let to form their
ideas of his immensity and power from a view of his works. The church of Ptome, though the
greatest patroness of the fine arts, yet dishonors the subject by encouraging those fruitless attempts
to imitate perfection. No such objection, however, holds good with regard to the portraiture of
the human nature of Jesus Christ, where the artist has free exercise for his pencil, and thedivine
nature condescends to become the object of our senses, veiled in the habiliments of mortal flesh :
but the student must not place to great confidence in the assertions of those who maintain that
St. Luke is the author of those wretched pieces of the Messiah in the possession or the Romish
church}
BEAUTY.
they call goitres, and of which some are very near as big as their heads. The first Sunday after
he had recovered of his illness, he went to their church (being a Roman Catholic) to return thanks
to heaven for his deliverance. A man of so good a figure, and so well dressed, had probably never
before been within the walls of their chapel. Every body's eyes were fixed upon him, and as he
went out, they cried loud enough for him to hear them ;—u O, how completely handsome would
that man be if he had but a goitre!"
The Laplanders, and their Northern neighbours, have broad flat faces and broken sunken noses.
The greater part of them are not above four feet high, with a head whose dimensions are full
one fifth of their whole figure. The Tartars have large wr inkled faces, even in youth ; short
thick noses, high cheeks, and long prominent chins. The Chinese, though with short and broad
visages, differ from the Tartars. They have small e}res, large eye-lids, sunken noses, a very scanty
beard on each lip, and scarcely any on the chin : the women have small eyes, broken noses, and
large ears. All these, as well as the Negro, Hottentot, native American, and polished European,
are equally thankful to Providence for that portion of beauty with which he has endowed them.
They complacently admire every part of their form and diversity of feature, and deplore the want
of it in their deformed, ungraceful neighbours.
Seeing that our judgment is so liable to err in fixing a criterion of this amiable quality, it may
by some be inferred, that beauty is more dependant on fancy than upon judgment; this is not
universally true. Fancy, it must be confessed, has more to do writh the two inferior parts, form
and colour, than with expression and grace, which are of a more determinate and precise nature,
visible in exery countenance, and affecting to every beholder, without any regard to time or place,
We are equally struck with these qualities, in an highly-finished piece, though of the most re-
mote antiquity or distant country, as with the representations of the same qualities in a character
of our own a°;e and nation.
This diversity of sentiment is a wise dispensation of the author of our nature: it renders the
peevish animal, man, discontented in every other respect, in general highly pleased with himself;
and also prevents the devastation and universal destruction which would ensue from a perfect
unanimity of opinion with regard to the object of the greatest beauty. It creates a sort of universal
beauty, greatly enlarges its objects, and offers to every one that which may best suit his taste.
But there is another character yet unmentioned, often attempted by the artist, viz. Deity.
It has been much controverted by divines, whether an endeavour at the delineation of the Supreme
Being were justifiable. Among artists, however, the matter has been long decided, who unani-
mously agree in its impracticability. No traits or outlines can characterise the greatest and best of
beings; the eternal first cause; the I am.—No colours can represent that light in which there is no
darkness at all. The highly favoured Israelites, who, from the voice of divinity itself, received that
code of laws which characterise his worshippers, yet saw no similitude, but were let to form their
ideas of his immensity and power from a view of his works. The church of Ptome, though the
greatest patroness of the fine arts, yet dishonors the subject by encouraging those fruitless attempts
to imitate perfection. No such objection, however, holds good with regard to the portraiture of
the human nature of Jesus Christ, where the artist has free exercise for his pencil, and thedivine
nature condescends to become the object of our senses, veiled in the habiliments of mortal flesh :
but the student must not place to great confidence in the assertions of those who maintain that
St. Luke is the author of those wretched pieces of the Messiah in the possession or the Romish
church}