Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1837 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V. OF KALEIDOSCOPIC BEAUTY, OR THE BEAUTY OF ANGLES AND AREAS. In the preceding chapter I have endeavoured to shew, first, that, in so far as composition is concerned, smoothness, regularity, harmony, simplicity of ratio, in one word, Symmetry, is the mode of composition on which the aspect of mere or simple beauty depends --that kind of beauty to which a simple disinterested admiration is the corresponding emotion, all the mind besides being left in a state of repose; and, secondly, that the opposite of symmetry--a certain irregularity, ruggedness, and disorder among the parts--is the mode of composition on which the aspect of animation and expression depends, so far as it depends on composition at all. But in proceeding with the farther development of the principles of beauty, it has now to be stated, that beauty does not depend altogether on composition. If it did, then, according to the principle of last chapter, there could be no beauty where there is no symmetry; and Beauty and Expression depending, as they have been shewn to do, on principles of composition diametrically opposed to each other, could not coexist with any intensity or harmony in the same object. But it is far otherwise in point of fact. In many objects, the Human Countenance for instance, Beauty and Expression combine their rival charms, so that it is difficult to say which of the two imparts most to the loveliness beheld. In the wildest scenes of nature, too, where not a trace of symmetry can be discovered, there often lies a deeply affecting beauty. Beauty, therefore, must have some retreat to which it can flee when driven out of Composition by the destruction of its symmetry, and where it can still reside and still display its mild and genial radiance in...