An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Taste, and of the Origin of our Ideas of Beauty, etc. | Page 7

line of intellectual power.
The first point The exact center, nature, or the origin of our intellectual
faculties, admits of no investigation, its idea, as I have observed before,
loses itself in the sentiment of sublimity, and we see nothing; and
therefore I pass on to an object which is perceptible, the common
general character of humanity, exterior and inferior. I have placed
them on a line, because their ideas are so analogous, that they unite in
one.
Section 1. Common Sense and common Form.
Perfection seems to be the ground-work both of common sense and of
common form; and, what prevents each from being perfect, is the
adventitious blemishes, the additions to, and the diminutions from,

what is perfect, making the too little and the too large. But, these
defects being distributed in, small portions throughout the general
common form and common mind, they constitute an object, whether
visible or intellectual, between perfection and imperfection, namely,
that of mediocrity, neither exciting admiration nor disgust. And, as
experience gives the general idea of the common and true appearance
of the human form, as well to the rustic as to the most enlightened
philosopher, so consequently does it enable him to see deformity, or
what is an unusual appearance in that form.
But, though unusual defects seem to be evident to every eye, it is only
to the man of taste and nice discernment that the same degree of
unusual beauties are equally perceptible; which corresponds with my
opinion, that the ground-work of humanity is perfection, and that its
blemishes only tinge its pure white, not discolour it so much, but, when
held at a distance, i.e. in abstract idea, it is still a white, like a sheet of
paper, or cloth of the most perfect white, regularly checkered over with
a variety of figures of every colour, and placed at a distance, appearing
to the eye a white, a mezzo common white; and, as any unusual figure,
I mean unusually large and opaque, on this mezzo ground, would be
more conspicuous than any of a greater degree of transparency or a
more perfect white could be by an absence of any of the figures; so any
degree of deformity is, more opposite to the general common form than
beauty, and any degree of insanity is more opposite to common sense
than intellectual excellence.
And, (to continue my allusion,) as those tints, or blemishes, which
obscure the ground, must be discharged to make a perfect white, so
must the artist, in creating beauty, discharge the blemishes that tinge
and obscure the human form, and which give it the character of
mediocrity, till the perfect white, or total absence of defect, or beauty,
result.
Common sense seems to be diffusive truth, and common form diffusive
beauty; and, as this diffusion is always existing with us, externally and
internally, it is no wonder that we should more easily perceive what is
in opposition to it, evil, than what is in unison with it, good.

On a line with common form and common sense I place common ease
of body and of mind: unfelt health, unfelt good, or that arising to the
degree of satisfaction and _content_; in fine, whatever we call
commonly good, and requisite for the well-being of humanity.
Section 2. Beauty and Truth.
I mean that beauty which is demonstrable truth, and that truth which is
demonstrable beauty. _Exactitude. Completion. The just medium. The
satisfactory rest of the mind. Perfection_. A point, indeed, in which the
mind cannot rest! It must go forward or backward. If the latter, it
relapses into the dominion of error; if the former, if assumes the charms
of design, or intention. The artist, arrived at the ultimate limit of rules,
or demonstrable truth, stands, as it were, between the visible and
invisible world; between that of sense and intellect; the common and
the uncommon; and his productions will be a conjunction of both. He
looks back through all the variety of common nature, and reviews,
through the medium of truth and beauty, the various objects it exhibits;
and on its spotless ground, i.e. the abstract idea of nature without
defects, can only exist in idea, he arranges those objects, objects, so as
they may best produce the effects he aims at in his art. He does not
attempt to obliterate any character in the common circle of nature; but,
following her own oeconomy, he endeavours, by juxtaposition, &c. to
make each subservient to each in creating delight, and giving beauty to
the whole. But, to descend from the abstract general idea to the
particular idea of beauty, or idea of a particular form:
We discard every thing, that is not beauty, to compose beauty; but
every thing that is not beauty is not therefore deformity. The wrong we