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them to cover the entire facts, seems equally plain. Beauty is not proportioned to utility, is not always attendant upon it and exists sometimes with little or no utility, save that which the gratification of taste itself affords. Unity and variety are frequently present with no corresponding beauty, belong to structures which do not pertain to the fine arts, and thus show an independent existence and range. Association explains many of the judgments of those who give little attention to intrinsic beauty, who under the influence of others yield their opinions to be swayed by the prevalent sentiment; yet just in proportion as the presence of taste is manifest, as the perception of beauty is developed, as the phenomena to be accounted for are obvious and declared, this explanation fails. The leaders in fine art have no higher association from which to derive their estimates of excellence, while the different, external, accidental pleasures, that may for them incidentally find connection with works of art, are no sufficient ground for their uniform estimates, singling these forth in all generations as objects of peculiar power and value.

But this theory of association, of character transferred to objects of beauty from the relations in which we find them, is met by the fact that we have a pertinent example of what association can do in this same direction in affecting our estimates of things; and that it wholly fails to sustain the explanation here offered of the facts of taste. The admiration the general public express for a new fashion is almost wholly due to association, and what are its characteristics? This esteem is fickle, contradictory, and wholly destitute of standards of judgment. Though in the present, unanimity may be complete, successive periods differ greatly in the forms rejected and accepted. Fortuity and the most extravagant fancies reign, and are equally imperious in their contradictory commands. The whole realm of fashion is one of.