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Untitled Article
ral power of pleasing , of which the beauty depends on circumstances at variance with utility . This is the rule argued by Pope , that the ornaments of a scene must result from it , and not be forced into it ; that , — " ' Tis use alone that sanctifies expense , And splendour borrows half its rays from sense . "
For the feelings of beauty to reign securely , they must be in alliance with the feelings of utility 5 not that every single ornament must have a decided use beyond its beauty , but at least that its beauty shall not be in contradiction to what feelings of use it may suggest . Where this alliance exists , beauty may obtain a footing under many disadvantages . To prove that obtain a footing under many disadvantages . To prove that
utility had nothing to do with beauty , Burke instanced the head of a pig , admirably adapted , with the small eyes and strong nozzle , for the purpose it is applied to by its owner . Here , he asserted , is the perfection of utility , but no beauty . As little , perhaps , would Hogarth , with his theory of waved lines , have acknowledged the beauty of Watt ' s governor of the
steam-engine . The first emotions excited by visible objects are generally those of former sensations , and accordingly , as they are pleasurable or otherwise , we call them beautiful or ugly ; and the governor of Watt , with its angular rods and strai ght lines , might excite associations of stiffness and restraint , as to a fastidious
taste , the comparative anatomy of the pig would be very ugliness , by suggesting the ideas of coarse sensations . But when by knowledge the range of ideas suggestible by these objects is enlarged , and their more extended relations more reacjily occur , a new inlet of emotion is opened , another spring of purer
pleasure is unsealed , and the beauty introduced by the discovery of a higher utility , is as superior to that which is the immediate result of mere sensations , as the happiness of a successful philosopher or enlightened patriot is superior to the content of the rustic , indulging to his heart ' s desire in what is
his highest conception of enjoyment—fat bacon , and a swing on a gate . The triumphal arch and the monumental pillar , contemplated merely as masses of stone , may delight us by the delicacy of their ornaments or the beauty of their proportions ; but when
the pillar is diverted from its appropriate purpose of supporting a heavy superstructure , with reference to which purpose all ita proportions were arranged by its inventors , to the anomalous purpose of sustaining a statue just out of sight , and that statue the effigy of a worthless profligate !—when the arch of triumph is turned t 6 a garden gate , and introduced against all harmony , ideas of Roman enormity and obsolete barbarism , among scenes
Untitled Article
Is there a Standard of Taste ? . 9 $
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1837, page 93, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1828/page/46/
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