its ornaments. A literary performance intended merely for amusement is fufceptible of much ornament, as well as a mufic-room or a playhouse; for in gaiety the mind hath a peculiar relish for fhow and decoration. The most gorgeous apparel, however improper in tragedy, is not unfuitable to opera-actors the truth is, an opera, in its prefent form, is a mighty fine thing; but, as it deviates from nature in its capital circumstances, we look not for nature nor propriety in those which are acceffory. On the other hand, a ferious and important subject admits not much ornament ;* nor a fubject that of itself is extremely beautiful and a fubject that fills the mind with its loftinefs and grandeur, appears beft in a dress altogether plain. To a perfon of a mean appearance, gorgeous apparel is unfuitable; which, befide the incongruity, hows by contraft the meannefs of appearance in the ftrongest light. Sweetnefs of look and manner requires fimplicity of drefs joined with the greatest ele gance. A ftately and majestic air requires fumptuous apparel, which ought not to be gaudy, nor crowded with little ornaments. A woman of confummate beauty can bear to be highly adorned, and yet fhows beft in a plain dress, For loveliness Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, Thempfon's Autumn, 208. * Contrary to this rule, the introduction to the third volume of the Characteriflics, is a continued chain of metaphors; thefe in fuch profufion are too florid for the fubje&t; and have befide the bad effect of removing our attention from the principal subject, to fix it upon splendid trifles, Congruity regulates not only the quantity of or nament, but alfo the kind. The decorations of a dancing-room ought all of them to be gay. No picture is proper for a church but what has religion for its fubject. Every ornament upon a fhield fhould relate to war; and Virgil, with great judgment, confines the carvings upon the fhield of Eneas to the military hiftory of the Romans: that beauty is overlooked by Homer: for the bulk of the fculpture upon the fhield of Achilles is of the arts of peace in gen, eral, and of joy and feftivity in particular: the author of Telemachus betrays the fame inattention, in defcribing the fhield of that young hero. In judging of propriety with regard to ornaments, we must attend, not only to the nature of the subject that is to be adorned, but alfo to the circumstances in which it is placed: the ornaments that are proper for a ball will appear not altogether fo decent at public worship and the fame perfon ought to drefs differently for a marriage-feaft and for a funeral. Nothing is more intimately related to a man than his fentiments, words, and actions; and therefore we require here the strictest conformity. When we find what we thus require, we have a lively fenfe of propriety when we find the contrary, our fenfe of impropriety is no lefs lively. Hence the univerfal diftafte of affectation, which confifts in making a fhew of greater delicacy and refinement,, than is fuited either to the character or circumftances of the perfon, Nothing in epic or dramatic compofitions is, more disgustful than impropriety of manners. In Corneille's tragedy of Cinna, Æmilia, a favourite of Auguftus, receives daily marks of his affection, and is loaded with benefits: yet all the while is laying plots to affaffinate her benefactor, directed by no other mo, f tive but to avenge her father's death :* revenge against a benefactor, founded folely upon filial piety, cannot be directed by any principle but that of juftice, and therefore never can fuggeft unlawful means; yet the crime here attempted, a treacherous murder, is what even a mifcreant will scarce attempt against his bitterest enemy. What is faid might be thought fufficient to explain the relations of congruity and propriety. And yet the fubject is not exhaufted: on the contrary, the profpect enlarges upon us, when we take under view the effects these relations produce in the mind. Congruity and propriety, wherever perceived, appear agreeable; and every agreeable object produceth in the mind a pleafant emotion: incongruity and impropriety, on the other hand, are difagreeable and of courfe produce painful emotions. These emotions, whether pleafant or painful, fometimes vanish without any confequence; but more frequently occafion other emotions, to which I proceed. When any flight incongruity is perceived in an ac cidental combination of perfons or things, as of paffengers in a stage-coach, or of individuals dining at an ordinary; the painful emotion of incongruity, after a momentary existence, vanifheth without producing any, effect. But this is not the cafe of propriety and impropriety voluntary acts, whether words or deeds, are imputed to the author; when proper, we reward him with our efteem; when improper, we punish him with our contempt. Let us fuppofe, for example, a generous action fuited to the character of the author, which raifes in him and every spectator the pleafant emotion of propriety: this emotion generates in the author both felf-esteem and joy; the former when he confiders his relation to See at 1. fc. 2. the the action, and the latter when he confiders the good opinion that others will entertain of him: the fame emotion of propriety produceth in the fpectators efteem for the author of the action: and when they think of themselves, it also produceth by contrast an emotion of humility. To difcover the effects of an unfuitable action, we must invert each of these circumstances: the painful emotion of impropriety generates in the author of the action both humility and fhame; the former when he confiders his relation to the action, and the latter when he confiders what others will think of him: the fame emotion of impropriety produceth in the spectators contempt for the author of the action and it alfo produceth, by contrast when they think of themselves, an emotion of self-esteem. Here then are many different emotions, derived from the fame action confidered in dif ferent views by different perfons; a machine provided with many fprings, and not a little complicated. Propriety of action, it would feem, is a favourite of nature, or of the author of nature, when fuch care and folicitude is bestowed on it. It is not left to our own choice; but, like juftice, is required at our hands; and, like juftice, is enforced by natural rewards and punishments: a man cannot, with impunity, do any thing unbecoming or improper; he fuffers the chaftifement of contempt inflicted by others, and of fhame inflicted by himself. An apparatus fo complicated, and fo fingular, ought to roufe our attention for nature doth nothing in vain; and we may conclude with certainty, that this curious branch of the human conftitution is intended for fome valuable purpose. To the discovery of that purpofe or final caufe I fhall with ardour apply my thoughts, after difcourfing a little more at large upon the punishment, as it may now be called, that nature hath hath provided for indecent and unbecoming behaviour. This, at any rate, is neceffary, in order to give a full view of the fubject: and who knows whether it may not, over and above, open fome tract that will lead us to the final cause we are in quest of? A grofs impropriety is punished with contempt and indignation, which are vented against the offender by external expreffions; nor is even the flightest impropriety fuffered to pass without fome degree of contempt. But there are improprieties of the flighter kind, that provoke laughter; of which we have examples without end in the blunders and abfurdities of our own fpecies: fuch improprieties receive a differ. ent punishment, as will appear by what follows. The emotions of contempt and of laughter occafioned by an impropriety of that kind, uniting intimately in the mind of the fpectator, are expreffed externally by a peculiar fort of laugh, termed a laugh of derifion or Scorn. An impropriety that thus moves not only contempt but laughter, is distinguished by the epi. thet of ridiculous; and a laugh of derision or fcorn is Nor the punishment provided for it by nature. ought it to escape obfervation, that we are fo fond of inflicting that punishment, as fometimes to exert it even against creatures of an inferior species: witness a turkeycock fwelling with pride, and ftrutting with displayed feathers, which in a gay mood is apt to provoke a laugh of derifion. We must not expect, that thefe different improprie ties are separated by diftin&t boundaries: for of im proprieties, from the flightest to the most grofs, from the most risible to the moft ferious, there are de grees without end. Hence it is, that in viewing fome unbecoming * See chap. 7• |