Hence it is that angular bodies,bodies that suddenly vary the direction of the outline,afford so little pleasure to the feeling.Every such change is a sort of climbing or falling in miniature;so that squares,triangles,and other angular figures,are neither beautiful to the sight nor feeling.Whoever compares his state of mind,on feeling soft,smooth,variegated,unangular bodies,with that in which he finds himself,on the view of a beautiful object,will perceive a very striking analogy in the effects of both;and which may go a good way towards discovering their common cause.Feeling and sight,in this respect,differ in but a few points.The touch takes in the pleasure of softness,which is not primarily an object of sight;the sight,on the other hand,comprehends colour,which can hardly be made perceptible to the touch;the touch,again,has the advantage in a new idea of pleasure resulting from a moderate degree of warmth;but the eye triumphs in the infinite extent and multiplicity of its objects.But there is such a similitude in the pleasures of these senses,that I am apt to fancy,if it were possible that one might discern colour by feeling,(as it is said some blind men have done,)that the same colours,and the same disposition of colouring,which are found beautiful to the sight,would be found likewise most grateful to the touch.But,setting aside conjectures,let us pass to the other sense;of Hearing.
XXV
The Beautiful In Sounds In this sense we find an equal aptitude to be affected in a soft and delicate manner;and how far sweet or beautiful sounds agree with our deions of beauty in other senses,the experience of every one must decide.Milton has described this species of music in one of his juvenile poems.1I need not say that Milton was perfectly well versed in that art;and that no man had a finer ear,with a happier manner of expressing the affections of one sense by metaphors taken from another.The deion is as follows:
And ever against eating cares,Lap me in soft Lydian airs;In notes with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out;With wanton heed,and giddy cunning,The melting voice through mazes running;Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony.
Let us parallel this with the softness,the winding surface,the unbroken continuance,the easy gradation of the beautiful in other things;and all the diversities of the several senses,with all their several affections,will rather help to throw lights from one another to finish one clear,consistent idea of the whole,than to obscure it by their intricacy and variety.
[Footnote 1:L'Allegro.]
[Footnote 2:I ne'er am merry,when I hear sweet music.-
Shakespeare.]
To the above-mentioned deion I shall add one or two remarks.The first is;that the beautiful in music will not bear that loudness and strength of sounds,which may be used to raise other passions;nor notes which are shrill,or harsh,or deep;it agrees best with such as are clear,even,smooth,and weak.The second is;that great variety,and quick transitions from one measure or tone to another,are contrary to the genius of the beautiful in music.Such transitions2often excite mirth,or other sudden and tumultuous passions;but not that sinking,that melting,that languor,which is the characteristical effect of the beautiful as it regards every sense.
The passion excited by beauty is in fact nearer to a species of melancholy,than to jollity and mirth.I do not here mean to confine music to any one species of notes,or tones,neither is it an art in which I can say I have any great skill.My sole design in this remark is,to settle a consistent idea of beauty.
