les of the imitative arts being so intimately united with the
intuitive principles of taste, or refined moral sense, that the mind
in general cannot distinguish where the one ends or the other begins.
The artist, who separates them, _leans on the second cause_ instead of
the first.

As the strongest proof that the moral sense is the governing principle
of beauty, we may remark, that the human form, from infancy to
old age, has its peculiar beauty annexed to it from the virtue
or affection that nature gives it, and which it exhibits in the
countenance. The negative virtue, innocence, is the beauty of the
child. The more formed virtues, benevolence, generosity, compassion,
&c. are the virtues of youth, and its beauty. The fixed and determined
virtues, justice, temperance, fortitude, &c. compose the beauty of
manhood. The philosophic and religious cast of countenance is the
beauty of old age. Now, were any of these expressions misapplied, i.e.
commuted, they would disgust rather than please: without congruity
there could be no virtue; without virtue, no beauty, no sentiment of
taste.

And thus the beauty of each sex is seen only through the medium of
the virtues belonging to each. The beauty of the masculine sex is seen
only through the medium of the masculine virtues; the beauty of the
feminine only through the medium of the feminine. The moral sense
gives each its distinct portion of the same virtues, but draws a line
which neither can pass without a diminution of their specific
beauty. The softness and mildness of the feminine expression would
be displeasing in a man. The robust and determined expression of
the rigid virtues, justice, fortitude, &c. would be displeasing in a
woman. However perfect the Form, if an incongruity that touches the
well-being of humanity mingles with the idea, the Form will not afford
the pleasing perception of beauty: though the eye may be capable of
seeing its regularity, &c. so far is it from pleasing, that it is
the more disgusting from its semblance to virtue, because that that
semblance is a contradiction to her laws.

May it not be owing to these expressions, so familiar to every eye,
that the general sense of good taste eternally exists? They are the
legible characters of human excellence, no where visible but in the
human countenance, every observation of which improves and confirms
the moral sentiment, or image of beauty, implanted by nature in the
mind of man.

The origin of t