The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 3,418 pages of information about The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 3,418 pages of information about The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

  Scit thalamo servare fidem, sanctasque veretur
  Connubii leges, non illum in pectore candor
  Sollicitat niveus; neque pravum accendit amorem
  Splendida Lanugo, vel honesta in vertice crista,
  Purpureusve nitor pennarum; ast agmina late
  Foeminea explorat cautus, maculasque requirit
  Cognatas, paribusque interlita corpora guttis: 
  Ni faceret, pictis sylvam circum undique monstris
  Confusam aspiceres vulgo, partusque biformes,
  Et genus ambiguum, et Veneris monumenta nefandae. 
  Hinc merula in nigro se oblectat nigra marito,
  Hinc socium lasciva petit Philomela canorum,
  Agnoscitque pares sonitus, hinc Noctua tetram
  Canitiem alarum, et glaucos miratur ocellos. 
  Nempe sibi semper constat, crescitque quotannis
  Lucida progenies, castos confessa parentes;
  Dum virides inter saltus lucosque sonoros
  Vere novo exultat, plumasque decora Juventus
  Explicat ad solem, patriisque coloribus ardet. [2]

There is a second Kind of Beauty that we find in the several 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 secret Delight, and a kind of Fondness for the Places or Objects in which we discover it.  This consists either in the Gaiety or Variety of Colours, in the Symmetry and Proportion of Parts, in the Arrangement and Disposition of Bodies, or in a just Mixture and Concurrence of all together.  Among these several Kinds of Beauty the Eye takes most Delight in Colours.  We no where meet with a more glorious or pleasing Show in Nature than what appears in the Heavens at the rising and setting of the Sun, which is wholly made up of those different Stains of Light that shew themselves in Clouds of a different Situation.  For this Reason we find the Poets, who are always addressing themselves 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 still more pleased the more it finds of these Perfections in the same Object, so is it capable of receiving a new Satisfaction by the Assistance of another Sense.  Thus any continued Sound, as the Musick of Birds, or a Fall of Water, awakens every moment the Mind of the Beholder, and makes him more attentive to the several Beauties of the Place that lye before him.  Thus if there arises a Fragrancy of Smells or Perfumes, they heighten the Pleasures of the Imagination, and make even the Colours and Verdure of the Landskip appear more agreeable; for the Ideas of both Senses recommend each other, and are pleasanter together than when they enter the Mind separately:  As the different Colours of a Picture, when they are well disposed, set off one another, and receive an additional Beauty from the Advantage of their Situation.

O.

[Footnote 1:  [to please]]

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The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.