N412. I Monday, June 23. Divifum fic breve fiet Opus. Mart. Shall first confider thofe Pleasures of the Imagination, which arife from the actual View and Survey of outward Objects: And these, I think, all proceed from the Sight of what is Great, Uncommon, or Beautiful There may, indeed, be foniething fo terrible or offenfive, that the Horror or Loathfomnefs of an Object may over-bear the Pleasure which refults from its Greatness, Novelty, or Beauty; but ftill there will be fuch a Mixture of Delight in the very Difguft it gives us, as any of thefe three Qua lifications are moft confpicuous and prevailing. BY Greatness, I do not only mean the Bulk of any fingle Object, but the Largeness of a whole View, con fidered as one entire Piece. Such are the Profpects of an open Champian Country, a vaft uncultivated Defart, of huge Heaps of Mountains, high Rocks and Precipices, or a wide Expanfe of Waters, where we are not ftruck with the Novelty or Beauty of the Sight, but with that rude kind of Magnificence which appears in many of thefe ftupendous Works of Nature. Our Imagination loves to be filled with an Object, or to grafp at any thing that is too big for its Capacity. We are flung into a pleafing Astonishment at fuch unbounded Views, and feel a delightful Stillnefs and Amazement in the Soul at the Apprehenfions of them. The Mind of Man naturally hates every thing that looks like a Restraint upon it, and is apt to fancy it felf under a fort of Confinement, when the Sight is pent up in a narrow Compafs, and fhortned on every fide by the Neighbourhood of Walls or Mountains. On the contrary, a fpacious Horizon is an Image of Liberty, where the Eye has Room to range abroad, to expatiate at large on the Immenfity of its Views, and to lofe. it self amidst the Variety of Objects that offer them themselves to its Obfervation. Such wide and undetermined Profpects are as pleafing to the Fancy, as the Speculations of Eternity or Infinitude are to the Understanding. But if there be a Beauty or Uncommonnefs joined with this Grandeur, as in a troubled Ocean, a Heaven adorned with Stars and Meteors, or a fpacious Landskip cut out into Rivers, Woods, Rocks, and Meadows, the Pleafure ftill grows upon us, as it rifes from more than a fingle Principle. EVERY thing that is new or uncommon raises a Pleafure in the Imagination, because it fills the Soul with an agreeable Surprize, gratifies its Curiofity, and gives it an Idea of which it was not before poffeft. We are indeed fo often converfant with one Set of Objects, and tired out with so many repeated Shows of the fame Things, that whatever is new or uncommon contributes a little to vary human Life, and to divert our Minds, for a while, with the Strangeness of its Appearance: It ferves us for a kind of Refreshment, and takes off from that Satiety we are apt to complain of in our ufual and ordinary En tertainments. It is this that bestows Charms on a Monfter, and makes even the Imperfections of Nature pleafe us. It is this that recommends Variety, where the Mind is every Inftant called off to fomething new, and the Attention not fuffered to dwell too long, and waste it felf on any particular Object. It is this, likewife, that improves what is great or beautiful, and makes it afford the Mind a double Entertainment. Groves, Fields, and Meadows, are at any Seafon of the Year pleasant to look upon, but never so much as in the opening of the Spring, when they are all new and fresh, with their first Glofs upon them, and not yet too much accustomed and familiar to the Eye. For this Reafon there is nothing that more enlivens a Profpect than Rivers, Jetteaus, or Falls of Water, where the Scene is perpetually fhifting, and entertaining the Sight every Moment with fomething that is new. We are quickly tired with looking upon Hills and Vallies, where every thing continues fixt and fettled in the fame Place and Pofture, but find our Thoughts a little agitated and relieved at the Sight of fuch Objects as are ever in Motion, and fliding away from beneath the Eye of the Beholder. BUT 1 BUT there is nothing that makes its Way more directly to the Soul than Beauty, which immediately diffufes a fecret Satisfaction and Complacency through the Imagination, and gives a Finishing to any thing that is Great or Uncommon. The very firft Difcovery of it ftrikes the Mind with an inward Joy, and fpreads a Chearfulness and Delight through all its Faculties. There is not perhaps any real Beauty or Deformity more in one Piece of Matter than another, because we might have been fo made, that whatsoever now appears loathfome to us, might have shewn it felf agreeable; but we find by Experience, that there are feveral Modifications of Matter which the Mind, without any previous Confideration, pronounces at first Sight Beautiful or Deformed. Thus we fee that every different Species of fenfible Creatures has its different Notions of Beauty, and that each of them is most affected with the Beauties of its own Kind. This is no where more remarkable than in Birds of the fame Shape and Proportion, where we often see the Male determined in his Courtship by the fingle Grain or Tincture of a Feather, and never discovering any Charms but in the Colour of its Species. Scit thalamo fervare fidem, fanitafque veretur THERE THERE is a fecond Kind of Beauty that we find in the feveral Products of Art and Nature, which does not work in the Imagination with that Warmth and Violence as the Beauty that appears in our proper Species, but is apt however to raise in us a fecret Delight, and a kind of Fondness for the Places or Objects in which we discover it. This confifts either in the Gaiety or Variety of Colours, in the Symmetry and Proportion of Parts, in the Arrangement and Difpofition of Bodies, or in a juft Mixsure and Concurrence of all together. Among thefe feveral Kinds of Beauty the Eye takes moft Delight in Colours. We no where meet with a more glorious or pleasing Show in Nature, than what appears in the Heavens at the rifing and fetting of the Sun, which is wholly made thofe different Stains of Light that fhew themfelves in Clouds of a different Situation. For this Reason we find the Poets, who are always addreffing themfelves to the Imagination, borrowing more of their Epithets from Colours than from any other Topic. AS the Fancy delights in every thing that is Great, Strange, or Beautiful, and is ftill more pleased the more it finds of these Perfections in the fame Object, fo is it capable of receiving a new Satisfaction by the Affiftance of another Senfe. Thus any continued Sound, as the Mufick of Birds, or a Fall of Water, awakens every Moment the Mind of the Beholder, and makes him more attentive to the feveral Beauties of the Place that lye before him, Thus if there arifes a Fragrancy of Smells or Perfumes, they heighen the Pleasures of the. Imagination, and make even the Colours and Verdure of the Landskip appear more agreeable; for the Ideas of both Senfes recommend each other, and are pleaíanter together than when they enter the Mind feparately: As the different Colours of a Picture, when they are well difpofed, fet off one another, and receive an additional Beauty from the Advantage of their Situation. 3 Tuesday's N° 413. T Tuesday, June 24. Caufa latet, vis eft notiffima Ovid. HOUGH in Yefterday's Paper we confidered how every thing that is Great, New, or Beautiful, is apt to affect the Imagination with Pleasure, we must own that it is impoffible for us to affign the necessary Cause of this Pleasure, because we know neither the Nature of an Idea, nor the Subftance of a Human Soul, which might help us to discover the Conformity or Difagreeable. nefs of the one to the other; and therefore, for want of fuch a Light, all that we can do in Speculations of this kind, is to reflect on those Operations of the Soul that are moft agreeable, and to range, under their proper Heads, what is pleafing or difpleafing to the Mind, without being able to trace out the feveral neceffary and efficient Caufes from whence the Pleasure or Difpleasure arifes. FINAL Caufes lye more bare and open to our Obfervation, as there are often a great Variety that belong to the fame Effect; and thefe, tho' they are not altogether fo fatisfactory, are generally more useful than the other, as they give us greater Occafion of admiring the Goodness and Wisdom of the firft Contriver. ONE of the Final Causes of our Delight, in any thing that is great, may be this. The Supreme Author of our Being has fo formed the Soul of Man, that nothing but himself can be its laft, adequate, and proper Happiness. Because, therefore, a great Part of our Happiness muft arife from the Contemplation of his Being, that he might give our Souls a juft Relifh of fuch a Contemplation, he has made them naturally delight in the Apprehenfion of what is Great or Unlimited. Our Admiration, which is a very pleafing Motion of the Mind, immediately rises at the Confideration of any Object that takes up a great deal of Room in the Fancy, and, by Confequence, will im |