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    Oil its striking display of the trivial peculiarities of particular glasses . That the degrees of intensity of desires and fears connected with various modes of existence , mental and material , must have a tendency to correspond with the utility of these various modes , whatever irregularities may occur in particular instances , or for limited periods , I may be allowed to assume . And com * paring with this the universality of the laws of human nature ,

    and the subjection , in spite of apparent irregularities , of the emotions of imagination , to the same general laws which regulate in all mankind the order of various passions and pleasures as sources of happiness , I think it may be safely concluded that it is possible to form an estimate of the power of a work of art to produce the emotions of beauty or sublimity , on such general principles that the result shall express not only the feelings of the individual critic , but a fixed relation of the object to general humanity . This decision , I think , would have been more generally arrived at , had philosophers , who have treated of the imagination , pursued a different course in their analysis of its phenomena . Mr Alison , after tracing the feeling of beauty to the associa *

    tion of pleasure , follows out the principle by analysing in detail the beauty of form , of colours , of sounds , and so on . This plan may bp called the objective ; and for this I could wish substituted an analysis of beauty , divided—not according to the varieties of beautiful objects , but according to the varieties in the composition of the feelings of beauty excited- —a subjective classification .

    The principle of a Standard of Taste would , I think , appear very clear , were this process followed out through every group of associated pleasures . First ; this view of the subject would present the beauty which arises merely from associations of the pleasures of sense , whatever the object by which excited , whether by words or visible objects . Such is the origin of the beauty of waved lines , where their introduction does not infringe the rule of utility ; with such lines the pleasure of the

    sensation of easy motion is strongly associated , from being frequently experienced in conjunction with them . These associations must also enter largely into the sense of beauty produced by graceful dancing . And thus the various occasions might be displayed on which the pleasing sensations of colour and sound contribute to our feelings of beauty . This ig notq ^ ly the case with visible objects , but in reading descriptions of scenery or of costume these associations still contribute .

    I confess that , friend as I ana to that theory of the human mind which adopts to the full extent the influence of the associations of ideas , I think some of its advocates have pushed the

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    Jfr there a Standard of TasU f $ 5

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1837, page 95, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1828/page/48/