Essays on Taste | Page 4

the human Breast in
this Manner, I would answer, that the ALMIGHTY has in this, as well
as in all his other Works, out of his abundant Goodness and Love to his
Creatures, so attuned our Minds to Truth, that all Beauty from without
should make a responsive Harmony vibrate within. But should any of
those more curious Gentlemen, who busy themselves With Enquiries
into Matters, which the Deity, for Reasons known only to himself, has
placed above our limited Capacities, demand how he has so formed us,
I should refer them, with proper Contempt, to their more aged Brethren,
who may justly in Derision be stiled the Philosophers of ultimate
Causes. To you, my dear Friend, whose truly philosophical and
religious Taste concludes that whatever GOD ordains is right, it is
sufficient to have proved that Truth is the Cause of all Beauty, and that
Truth flows from the Fountain of all Perfection, in whose unfathomable
Depth finite Thought should never venture with any other Intention
than to wonder and adore. But I find I have been imperceptibly led on
from Thought to Thought, not only to trespass upon the common Stile
of a Letter, by these abstruse Reasonings and religious Conclusions, but
upon the ordinary length of one likewise; therefore shall conclude by
complimenting my own Taste in Characters, when I assure you that I
am,
Your most affectionate Friend, &c.

LETTER II.
To the SAME.
It gave me no small Pleasure to find, by your Answer to my last Letter,
that you now allow BEAUTY to be the Daughter of TRUTH; and I in
my turn will make a Concession to you, by confessing that BEAUTY
herself may have acquired Charms, but then they are altogether such as
are consistent with her divine Extraction. What you observe is very true,
that the human Form (the most glorious Object, as you are pleased to
call it, in the Creation) let it be made with the most accurate Symmetry
and Proportion, may receive additional Charms from Education, and
steal more subtily upon the Soul of the Beholder from some
adventitious Circumstances of easy Attitudes or Motion, and an
undefineable Sweetness of Countenance, which an habitual Commerce
with the more refined Part of Mankind superadds to the Work of Nature.
This the ancient Grecian Artists would have represented
mythologically in Painting by the GRACES crowning VENUS. We
find how much LELY has availed himself in his shadowy Creations of
transcribing from Life this adventitious Charm into all his Portraits. I
mean, when he stole upon his animated Canvas, as POPE poetically
expresses it,
"The sleepy Eye that spoke the melting Soul."
You will ask me, perhaps, how I can prove any Alliance in this
particular Circumstance of a single Feature to Truth; Or rather
triumphantly push the Argument farther, and say, Is not this additional
Charm, as you call it, inconsistent with the Divine Original of Beauty,
since it deadens the fiery Lustre of that penetrating Organ? I chuse to
draw my Answer from the Schools of the antient ETHOGRAPHI, who
by their enchanting Art so happily conveyed, thro' the Sight, the
Lessons of Moral Philosophy. These Sages would have told you, that
our Souls are attuned to one another, like the Strings of musical
Instruments, and that the Chord of one being struck, the Unison of
another, tho' untouched, will vibrate to it. The Passions therefore of the
human Heart, expressed either in the living Countenance, or the
mimetic Strokes of Art, will affect the Soul of the Beholder with a

similar and responsive Disposition. What wonder then is it that Beauty,
borrowing thus the Look of softening Love, whose Power can lull the
most watchful of the Senses, should cast that sweet Nepenthe upon our
Hearts, and enchant our corresponding Thoughts to rest in the
Embraces of Desire? Sure then I am, that you will always allow Love
to be the Source and End of our Being, and consequently consistent
with Truth. It is the Superaddition of such Charms to Proportion, which
is called Taste in Musick, Painting, Poetry, Sculpture, Gardening and
Architecture. By which is generally meant that happy Assemblage
which excites in our Minds, by Analogy, some pleasurable Image. Thus,
for Instance, even the Ruins of an old Castle properly disposed, or the
Simplicity of a rough hewn Hermitage in a Rock, enliven a Prospect,
by recalling the Moral Images of Valor and _Wisdom_; and I believe
no Man will contend, that Valor exerted in the Defence of one's
Country, or Wisdom contemplating in Retirement for the Welfare of
Mankind, are not truly amiable Images, belonging to the Divine Family
of Truth. I think I have now reconciled our two favorite Opinions, by
proving that these additional Charms, if they must be called so, have
their Origin in