them. The
negro-race seems to be the farthest removed from the line of true
cultivation of any of the human species; their defect of form and
complexion being, I imagine, as strong an obstacle to their acquiring
true taste (the produce of mental cultivation) as any natural defect
they may have in their intellectual faculties. For if, as I have
observed, the total want of cultivation would preclude external
beauty, the total want of external beauty would preclude the power
of cultivation. It appears to me inconceivable, that the negro-race
supposing their mental powers were upon a level with other nations,
could ever arrive at true taste, when their eye is accustomed _only_
to objects so diametrically opposite to taste as the face and form of
negroes are! Our being used or not used to the object cannot make us
perceive any similarity in the lineaments of their countenance to the
lineaments, if I may so say, of our refined virtues and affections,
which alone constitute beauty; and therefore I am induced to believe
that they are a lower order of human beings than the Europeans.

Beauty is an assemblage of every human charm; yet what we call the
_agreeable_ is often more captivating.

The agreeable, in person, is composed of beauties and defects, as is
the common form, but differently composed. The beauties and defects
of the latter are blended into the idea of mediocrity; those of the
former are always distinct and perceptible, contrasting each other,
they engage the attention, and create a kind of pleasing _re-creation_
to the mental faculties; and, in proportion as we can bring them
to unite with our governing principles of pleasure, they create
affection, which gives the person a more fascinating charm than beauty
itself.

It is the mental character that is the moving principle of affection;
and any strong peculiarity, that contradicts not the moral sense,
i.e. that is not _unnatural_, gives the object an accessary charm, and
raises the affection to passion. The object is at once the common and
the uncommon; an union, which constitutes all we call excellent, all
we admire!

The perception of the charms of the agreeable seem to be wrought up
to excellence by the operation of our own powers. We ourselves
have blended its beauties and defects into the sentiment of beauty,
_pleasure_; and hence, probably, the strength and durability of the
passion which it creates. Beauty, on the contrary, is composed to our
hands, _f