However symmetrically beautiful any architectural structure may be, when in a complete and perfect state, it must, as it proceeds towards ruin, blend the picturesque with the symmetrical; but the type of its beauty will continue to be the latter, so long as a sufficient portion of it remains to convey an idea of its original perfection. It is the same with the human form and countenance; for age does not destroy their original beauty, but in both only lessens that which is symmetrical, while it increases that which is picturesque.
In short, as a variety of simultaneously produced sounds, which do not relate to each other agreeably to this law, can only convey to the mind a feeling of mere noise; so a variety of forms or colours simultaneously exposed to the eye under similar circumstances, can only convey to the mind a feeling of chaotic confusion, or what may be termed visible discord. As, therefore, the two principles of uniformity and variety, or similarity and dissimilarity, are in operation in every harmonious combination of the elements of sound, of form, and of colour, we must first have recourse to numbers in the abstract before we can form a proper basis for a universal science of beauty.
THE SCIENCE OF BEAUTY EVOLVED FROM THE HARMONIC LAW OF NATURE, AGREEABLY TO THE PYTHAGOREAN SYSTEM OF NUMERICAL RATIO.
The scientific principles of beauty appear to have been well known to the ancient Greeks; and it must have been by the practical application of that knowledge to the arts of Design, that that people continued for a period of upwards of three hundred years to execute, in every department of these arts, works surpassing in chaste beauty any that had ever before appeared, and which have not been equalled during the two thousand years which have since elapsed.
Æsthetic science, as the science of beauty is now termed, is based upon that great harmonic law of nature which pervades and governs the universe. It is in its nature neither absolutely physical nor absolutely metaphysical, but of an intermediate nature, assimilating in various degrees, more or less, to one or other of those opposite kinds of science. It specially embodies the inherent principles which govern impressions made upon the mind through the senses of hearing and seeing. Thus, the æsthetic pleasure derived from listening to the beautiful in musical composition, and from contemplating the beautiful in works of formative art, is in both cases simply a response in the human mind to artistic developments of the great harmonic law upon which the science is based.
Although the eye and the ear are two different senses, and, consequently, various in their modes of receiving impressions; yet the sensorium is but one, and the mind by which these impressions are perceived and appreciated is also characterised by unity. There appears, likewise, a striking analogy between the natural constitution of the two kinds of beauty, which is this, that the more physically æsthetic elements of the highest works of musical composition are melody, harmony, and tone, whilst those of the highest works of formative art are contour, proportion, and colour. The melody or theme of a musical composition and its harmony are respectively analogous,—1st, To the outline of an artistic work of formative art; and 2d, To the proportion which exists amongst its parts. To the careful investigator these analogies become identities in their effect upon the mind, like those of the more metaphysically æsthetic emotions produced by expression in either of these arts.
Agreeably to the first analogy, the outline and contour of an object, suppose that of a building in shade when viewed against a light background, has a similar effect upon the mind with that of the simple melody of a musical composition when addressed to the ear unaccompanied by the combined harmony of counterpoint. Agreeably to the second analogy, the various parts into which the surface of the supposed elevation is divided being simultaneously presented to the eye, will, if arranged agreeably to the same great law, affect the mind like that of an equally harmonious arrangement of musical notes accompanying the supposed melody.
There is, however, a difference between the construction of these two organs of sense, viz., that the ear must in a great degree receive its impressions involuntarily; while the eye, on the other hand, is provided by nature with the power of either dwelling upon, or instantly shutting out or withdrawing itself from an object. The impression of a sound, whether simple or complex, when made upon the ear, is instantaneously conveyed to the mind; but when the sound ceases, the power of observation also ceases. But the eye can dwell upon objects presented to it so long as they are allowed to remain pictured on the retina; and the mind has thereby the power of leisurely examining and comparing them. Hence the ear guides more as a mere sense, at once and without reflection; whilst the eye, receiving its impressions gradually, and part by part, is more directly under the influence of mental analysis, consequently producing a more metaphysically æsthetic emotion. Hence, also, the acquired power of the mind in appreciating impressions made upon it through the organ of sight under circumstances, such as perspective, &c., which to those who take a hasty view of the subject appear impossible.
Dealing as this science therefore does, alike with the sources and the resulting principles of beauty, it is scarcely less dependent on the accuracy of the senses than on the power of the understanding, inasmuch as the effect which it produces is as essential a property of objects, as are its laws inherent in the human mind. It necessarily comprehends a knowledge of those first principles in art, by which certain combinations of sounds, forms, and colours produce an effect upon the mind, connected, in the first instance, with sensation, and in the second with the reasoning faculty. It is, therefore, not only the basis of all true practice in art, but of all sound judgment on questions of artistic criticism, and necessarily includes those laws whereon a correct taste must be based. Doubtless many eloquent and ingenious treatises have been written upon beauty and taste; but in nearly every case, with no other effect than that of involving the subject in still greater uncertainty. Even when restricted to the arts of design, they have failed to exhibit any definite principles whereby the true may be distinguished from the false, and some natural and recognised laws of beauty reduced to demonstration. This may be attributed, in a great degree, to the neglect of a just discrimination between what is merely agreeable, or capable of exciting pleasurable sensations, and what is essentially beautiful; but still more to the confounding of the operations of the understanding with those of the imagination. Very slight reflection, however, will suffice to shew how essentially distinct these two faculties of the mind are; the former being regulated, in matters of taste, by irrefragable principles existing in nature, and responded to by an inherent principle existing in the human mind; while the latter operates in the production of ideal combinations of its own creation, altogether independent of any immediate impression made upon the senses. The beauty of a flower, for example, or of a dew-drop, depends on certain combinations of form and colour, manifestly referable to definite and systematic, though it may be unrecognised, laws; but when Oberon, in “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” is made to exclaim—