How dif

jolting and angular motion always displeases us. ferent is the effect produced by the motion of one man on crutches, and of another on skates !

Ascending motion is more graceful than descending, if it do not betoken effort. The ascent of a rocket is more beautiful than its descent, especially if it ascend in a curved line. For this reason a jet d'eau is vastly more beautiful than a waterfall of the same volume. Ascending motion in spiral lines is exceedingly beautiful, as for instance, the ascent of a hawk, as it moves slowly upward, in oft-repeated circles.

It is manifest that many objects derive their power to please us from a single one of these qualities. Thus, the evening cloud displays rarely any other beauty than that of color. Others combine several of them, conducing to the same result. Thus the rainbow unites beauty of color with beauty of form. The greater the number and the more intense the degree in which any object unites these several qualities, the more impressive does it become, and the more universally is it selected by poets and artists for æsthetic effect. Thus the human form, especially the countenance, combining beauty of color, form, motion, and expression, is always considered the most remarkable object in nature, and is selected by painters and sculptors, as the finest subject on which their art can be employed.

Objects of taste addressed to the ear, or beauty of sound.

That sound is a source of beauty, independently, and especially in combination with other objects, will be readily granted by every lover of nature. How greatly is the effect of a summer's landscape increased by the singing of birds! Sounds differ in their degree of loudness.

Loudness awakens the emotion of sublimity, as in the instance of a peal of thunder or the roar of a cataract. Soothing sounds, as the singing of birds, the hum of bees,

the rustling of the trees of a forest, add greatly to the effect of a summer's landscape. Low, continuous sound tends to repose, and harmonizes with all our ideas of the peace and quietness of a country life. These circumstances are beautifully combined by Virgil, in describing the peace of Italy, in contrast with the civil wars by which it had been so lately devastated:

66

Sepes

Hyblæis apibus florem depasta salicti,
Sæpe levi somnum suadebit inire susurro
Hinc, alta sub rupe, canei frondator ad auras,
Nec tamen intereà, raucæ, tua cura, palumbes,
Nec gemere aæria cessabit turtur ab ulmo."

1 BUCOLIC.

So Shakspeare, alluding to the power of gentle sounds

"That strain again; it had a dying fall.
O, it came o 'er my ear like the sweet south
That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odor."

TWELFTH NIGHT, Act 1, Scene 1.

:

But, while loudness of sound awakens the emotion of sublimity, it must not be supposed that its opposite, absolute silence, is unimpressive. Deep silence is frequently eminently sublime, especially when it occurs in the intermission of the roar of the tempest, or in preparation for the awful catastrophe of a battle. Campbell, in his "Battle of the Baltic," illustrates this fact in these remarkable lines:

"As they drifted on their path,
There was silence deep as death,
And the boldest held his breath

For a time.

'Hearts of oak!' our captain cried, and each gun,
From its adamantine lips,

Spread a death-shade round the ships,

Like the hurricane eclipse

Of the sun. ""

The late Dr. Jeffries, of Boston, in the narrative of his passage across the English Channel with Montgolfier, in a balloon, has the following striking remark:

"Amidst all the magnificent scenes around me and under me, nothing at the time more impressed me with its novelty than (if I may be allowed to use the expression) the awful stillness or silence in which we seemed to be enveloped, which produced a sensation that I am unable to describe, but which seemed at the time to be a certain kind of stillness (if I may so express it) that could be felt."- Narrative of Two Ærial Voyages, page 52.

Sound may be either lengthened or abrupt. Continuous sound is grave; abrupt sound is exciting. We all have observed the difference between the long, reëchoed bellowings of distant thunder, and the sudden rattling reverberation of thunder near at hand. Music with few or distant intervals harmonizes with a melancholy train of thought. Music with rapid and frequent intervals is cheering and animating. Every one knows the different effects of a dirge and a quick-step, or of the same air played in quick and in slow time.

The effect of music on our emotions is thus admirably described by Cowper:

"There is in souls a sympathy with sounds,
And as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased
With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave.
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touched within us, and the heart replies.
How soft the music of yon village bells,
Rolling at intervals upon the ear
In cadence sweet! now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again, and louder still,

Clear and sonorous as the gale comes on.
With easy force it opens all the cells
Where memory slept."

TASK, Book 6.

I have thus far spoken of sounds which produce an æsthetic effect upon us by themselves. It is, however, probable that sounds depend more upon association for their effect, than either color or form. The effect of music is greatly increased by uniting it with appropriate words. The most common air, if associated with the remembrance of home and country and friends, becomes deeply affecting. I have heard the Swiss herdsman's song, and it seemed to me dull and monotonous, without any power of appeal to the heart. Yet it is said to effect these mountaineers, when in a foreign land, even to weeping; so that the playing of it is forbidden in the armies with which they are in service.

It is on this account that commop sounds, nay, sounds in themselves displeasing, become, under peculiar circumstances, delightful. There is nothing intrinsically pleasing in the lowing of cattle; when heard close at hand, it is disagreeable. Yet I have heard seamen speak with deep feeling of the delight with which they listened to these sounds, when, after a long voyage, they first heard them from their native shore. In a word, anything pleases us which recalls deeply-affecting reminiscences; and music possesses this power in a remarkable degree. Cowper expresses this truth with exquisite taste in the following passage:

"Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds
Exhilarate the spirit, and restore

The tone of languid nature. Mighty winds,
That sweep the skirt of some far-spreading wood
Of ancient growth, make music not unlike
The dash of ocean on his winding shore.
Ten thousand warblers cheer the day, and one

The livelong night. Nor these alone, whose notes
Nice-fingered art must emulate in vain,

But cawing rooks, and kites, that soar sublime
In still repeated circles, screaming loud,
The jay, the pie, and e'en the brooding owl,
That hails the rising morn, have charms for me.
Sounds inharmonious in themselves, and harsh,
Yet heard in scenes where peace forever reigns,
And there alone, please highly, for her sake."
TASK, Book 1.

SECTION III. OBJECTS OF TASTE. IMMATERIAL QUALITIES.

THERE can be no doubt that we discover in the creation around us much that is beautiful which cannot be referred to any material quality. There are various attributes of human beings which do not discover themselves to the senses. There are various affections of our spiritual nature which we are able to contemplate distinctly by themselves. These affections are capable of producing in us the emotion of beauty and sublimity, or of deformity and meanness. brief consideration of some of these is necessary to the completion of the plan which we have proposed.

The order in which these emotions arise is probably the following. We first become conscious of the emotion of beauty from the contemplation of material objects. Colors and sounds first delight us; then forms and motion. But, as our minds assume a subjective tendency, we think of the actions, the motives, the governing principles, and characters of men. We find that some of these awaken in us an emotion exceedingly analogous to that of which we were conscious when we observed the beautiful and sublime in external nature. We give to both classes of emotion the same name, and designate the objects which awaken them