Newcastle University

“The word Beauty is a general term of approbation, of the most vague and extensive meaning, applied indiscriminately to almost every thing that is pleasing, either to the sense, the imagination, or the understanding; whatever the nature of it be, whether a material substance, a moral excellence, or an intellectual theorem. ”
(Knight, 1805)

“. . . one source of beauty arises from that species of elegance, which we call smoothness, or neatness; for the terms are nearly synonymous. The higher the marble is polished, the brighter the silver is rubbed, and the more the mahogany shines, the more each is considered as an object of beauty: as if the eye delighted in gliding smoothly over a surface. In the class of larger objects the same idea prevails. In a pile of building we wish to see neatness in every part added to the elegance of the architecture. And if we examine a piece of improved pleasure-ground, every thing rough, and slovenly offends.”
(Gilpin, Three Essays, 1792)

“We speak also, and, I believe, with equal propriety, not only of the beauties of symmetry and arrangement, but of those of virtue, charity, holiness, &c.”
(Knight, 1805)

“First, one must get firmly into one's mind that by the judgement of taste (upon the beautiful) the delight in an object is imputed to every one, yet without being founded on a concept (for then it would be the good), and that this claim to universality is such an essential factor of a judgement by which we describe anything as beautiful, that were it not for its being present to the mind it would never enter into any one's head to use this expression, but everything that pleased without a concept would be ranked as agreeable.”
(Kant, 1952)

“. . . and I shall proceed to consider the fundamental principles, which are generally allowed to give elegance and beauty, when duly blended together, to compositions of all kinds whatever; and point out to my readers, the particular force of each, in those compositions in nature and art, which seem most to please and entertain the eye, and give that grace and beauty, which is the subject of this enquiry. The principles I mean, are FITNESS, VARIETY, UNIFORMITY, SIMPLICITY, INTRICACY, and QUANTITY;----all which co-operate in the production of beauty, mutually correcting and restraining each other occasionally.”
(Hogarth, 1753)

“I mean here, and every where indeed, a composed variety; for variety uncomposed, and without design, is confusion and deformity.”
(Hogarth, 1753)

“The Bridge of the Santa Trinita, erected over the Arno, rivals the most beautiful structures of a similar kind known throughout Europe . . . . On the extremities of its marble exterior stand four elegant statues, representing the Seasons. At the centre of each arch there is also another marble figure; and these ornaments . . . were intended to conceal the interruptions of the arched line by the intersection of the two curves which form the arch. But nothing . . . can exceed the beauty of the effect produced by the lightness of the arches, contrasted with the massiveness of the piers and the cut-waters . . .”
(Roscoe, 1832)