this, which is founded upon as invariable Principles: I mean the Science of living well, in which you are as happily learned as in the former. Say then, has not every amiable Character, with which you have been enamoured, been proved by a cool Examination to contain a beautiful Proportion, in the Point it was placed in, relative to Society? And what is it that conftitutes Moral Deformity, or what we call Vice, but the Difproportion which any Agent occafions, in the Fabric of Civil Community, by a Non-compliance to the general Order which should prevail in it?

As the Arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Poetry are imitative of these, their Excellence, as ARISTOTLE obferves, confifts in Faithfulness to their Original: nor have they any primary Beauty in themselves, but derive their fhadowy Exiftence in a mimetic Tranfcript from Objects in the Material World, or from Paffions, Characters, and Manners. Nevertheless that internal Senfe we call TASTE (which is a Herald for the whole human System, in it's three different Parts, the refined Faculties of Perception, the grofs Organs of Senfe,

Senfe, and the intermediate Powers of Imagination) has as quick a Feeling of this fecondary Excellence of the Arts, as for the primary Graces; and feizes the Heart with Rapture long before the Senfes, and Reafon in Conjunction, can prove this Beauty by collating the Imitations with their Originals.

If it should be asked why external Objects affect the human Breast in this Mánner, I would answer, that the ALMIGHTY has in this, as well as in all his other Works, out of his abundant Goodness and Love to his Creatures, fo attuned our Minds to Truth, that all Beauty from without should make a responsive Harmony vibrate within. But should any of those more curious Gentlemen, who busy themselves with Enquiries into Matters, which the Deity, for Reasons known only to himself, has placed above our limited Capacities, demand bow he has fo formed us, I should refer them, with proper Contempt, to their more aged Brethren, who may justly in Derifion be stiled the PhiloSophers of ultimate Causes. To you, my dear Friend, whofe truly philofophical

and religious Taste concludes that' whatever GOD ordains is right, it is fufficient to have proved that Truth is the Caufe of all Beauty, and that Truth flows from the Fountain of all Perfection, in whofe unfathomable Depth finite Thought should never venture with any other Intention than to wonder and adore. But I find I have been imperceptibly led on from Thought to Thought, not only to trespass upon the common Stile of a Letter, by these abftrufe Reasonings and religious Conclufions, but upon the ordinary length of one likewife; therefore shall conclude by complimenting my own Tafte in Characters, when I affure you that I

am,

Your most affectionate Friend, &c.

LET

IT

[9]

LETTER II.

To the SAME.

gave me no small Pleasure to find, by your Answer to my last Letter, that you now allow BEAUTY to be the Daughter of TRUTH; and I in my turn will make a Conceffion to you, by confeffing that BEAUTY herself may have acquired Charms, but then they are altogether fuch as are confiftent with her divine Extraction. What you observe is very true, that the human Form (the most glorious Object, as you are pleased to call it, in the Creation) let it be made with the most accurate Symmetry and Proportion, may receive additional Charms from Education, and steal more fubtily upon the Soul of the Beholder from fome adventitious Circumftances of eafy Attitudes or Motion, and an undefineable Sweetnefs of Countenance, which an habitual Commerce with the more refined Part of Mankind superadds to the Work of Nature. This the ancient Grecian Artists would have reprefented mythologically in Painting by the GRACES Crowning VENUS. We find how

much LELY has availed himself in his fhadowy Creations of tranfcribing from Life this adventitious Charm into all his Portraits. I mean, when he ftole upon his animated Canvas, as POPE poetically expreffes it,

"The fleepy Eye that spoke the melting Soul."

You will ask me, perhaps, how I can prove any Alliance in this particular Circumftance of a fingle Feature to Truth; Or rather triumphantly pufh the Argument farther, and fay, Is not this additional Charm, as you call it, inconfiftent with the Divine Original of Beauty, fince it deadens the fiery Luftre of that penetrating Organ I chufe to draw my Answer from the Schools of the antient EтнOGRAPHI, who by their enchanting Art fo happily conveyed, thro' the Sight, the Leffons of Moral Philofophy. These Sages would have told you, that our Souls are attuned to one another, like the Strings of musical Instruments, and that the Chord of one being struck, the Unifon of another, tho' untouched, will vibrate to it. The Paffions therefore of the human Heart, expreffed