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 268 BURKE. has laid down-this prineiple Reynolds has supplied. It must have occurred to the readers of the Sublime and Beautiful, that the elements of Burke are not sufficiently defined to deserve the name of principles. Such phrases as "delicacy of construction," "clearness and brightness colour without glare," "variety of direction in the parts," are too pliable to be made weapons of philosophical controversy. It might also be objected, that it would be possible to construct something in which all these consti- tuents should be found, and which would at the same time produce no effect of beauty in the mind of the beholder. It might also be said that beautiful objects may be found in which one, or even several of Burke's principles are violated. What is more beautiful than the broad expanse of clear sky? and yet there is no "comparative smallness" in it. Are the willows arching over a river, and dipping their leaves in the stream, the broad water-plants floating on its surface, and the fragments of rock wbich ruffle the course of its waters, destructive of its beauty, by injuring its smoothness ? Is there nothing beautiful in the form of a sphere, though it has but little "variation in the direc- tion of its parts?" Would Burke have bent the "angles" of the larch fir, into curves; or would he have thought he had improved the beauty of the oak, by remodelling its form to correspond with the delicate construction of the acacia ? If there be beauty in the "clear bright colours" of noon, is there nothing to admire in the calm and sober shades of twilight? These are objections which would naturally strike the mind of an artist, and accordingly the whole tenour of the lectures is in opposition to that reckless devotion to analysis, which could alone have led Burke into such a narrow system. of Accordingly in the theory of beauty which is laid dowrn in Sir Joshua Reynolds' third discourse, we find no refe- rence to the elements of Burke. Beauty is there defined to consist in an abstraction of all that is singular, local, aud peculiar in nature. That individual is most beautifu