figures in mufic, fentiment is neglected for the luxury of harmony, and for difficult movement: in tafte properly fo called, poignant fauces, with complicated mixtures of different favours, prevail among people of condition: the French, accustomed to artificial red on a female cheek, think the modeft colouring of nature altogether infipid.

The fame tendency is difcovered in the progrefs of the fine arts among the ancients. Some veftiges of the old Grecian buildings prove them to be of the Doric order: the Ionic fucceeded, and feems to have been the favourite order, while architecture was in the height of glory: the Corinthian came next in vogue; and in Greece the buildings of that order appear moftly to have been erected after the Romans got footing there. At laft came the Composite, with all its extravagancies, where fimplicity is facrificed to finery and crowded ornament.

But what tafte is to prevail next? for fashion is a continual flux, and taste muft vary with it. After rich and profufe ornaments become familiar, fimplicity appears lifelefs and infipid; which would be an unfurmountable obftruction, fhould any perfon of genius and tafte endeavour to restore ancient fimplicity *.

The

A fprightly writer obferves, "that the noble fim. "plicity of the Auguftan age was driven out by falfe "tafte; that the gigantic, the puerile, the quaint, and at

"laft

The diftinction between primary and fecondary qualities in matter, feems now fully establifhed. Heat and cold, fmell and tafte, though seeming to exist in bodies, are discovered to be effects caused by these bodies in a fenfitive being: colour, which appears to the eye as spread upon. a fubflance, has no exiftence but in the mind of the fpectator. Qualities of that kind, which owe their existence to the percipient as much as to the object, are termed Jecondary qualities, and are distinguished from figure, extenfion, folidity, which, in contradiftinction to the former, are termed primary qualities, because they inhere in fubjects whether perceived or not. This diftinction fuggefts a curious inquiry, Whether beauty be a primary or only a fecondary quality of objects? The queftion is eafily determined with respect to the beauty of colour; for, if colour be a fecondary quality, exifting no where but in the mind of the fpectator, its beauty must exift there also. This conclufion equally holds with refpect to the beauty of utility, which is plainly a conception of the mind, arising not from fight, but from reflecting that the thing is fitted for fome good end or purpose. The ftion is more intricate with refpect to the beauty of regularity; for, if regularity be a primary quality, why not alfo its beauty? That this is

que

"laft the barbarous and the monkish, had each their fuc"ceffive admirers that mufic has become a fcience of "tricks and flight of hand," &c.

not

not a good inference, will appear from confidering, that beauty, in its very conception, refers to a percipient; for an object is said to be beau-tiful, for no other reafon but that it appears fo to a spectator: the fame piece of matter that to a man appears beautiful, may poffibly appear ugly to a being of a different species. Beauty, therefore, which for its existence depends on the percipient as much as on the object perceived, cannot be an inherent property in either. And hence it is wittily obferved by the poet, that beauty is not in the perfon beloved, but in the lover's eye. This reafoning is folid; and the only cause of doubt or hesitation is, that we are taught a different leffon by fense: a fingular determination of nature makes us perceive both beauty and colour as belonging to the object, and, like figure or extenfion, as inherent properties. This mechanism is uncommon; and, when nature, to fulfil her intention, prefers any fingular method of operation, we may be certain of fome final caufe that cannot be reached by ordinary means. For the beauty of fome objects we are indebted entirely to nature; but, with respect to the endless variety of objects that owe their beauty to art and culture, the perception of beauty greatly promotes industry; being to us a strong additional incitement to enrich our fields, and improve our manufactures. Thefe, however, are but flight effects, compared with the connections that are formed among individuals

viduals in fociety by means of this fingular mechanifm: the qualifications of the head and heart form undoubtedly the moft folid and moft but external beauty, permanent connections ; which lies more in view, has a more extenfive influence in forming thefe connections: at any rate, it concurs in an eminent degree with mental qualifications to produce focial intercourse, mutual good-will, and confequently mutual aid and support, which are the life of fociety.

It must not, however, be overlooked, that the perception of beauty doth not, when immoderate, tend to advance the interests of society." Love, in particular, arifing from a perception of beauty, lofes, when exceffive, its fociable character the appetite for gratification prevailing over affection for the beloved object, is ungovernable; and tends violently to its end, regardless of the mifery that must follow. Love, in that state, is no longer a sweet agreeable paffion it becomes painful, like hunger or thirft; and produceth no happiness but in the inftant of fruition. This discovery fuggefts a most important leffon, That moderation in our defires and appetites, which fits us for doing our duty, contributes at the fame time the most to happinefs: even focial paffions, when moderate, are more pleasant than when they fwell beyond proper bounds.

VOL. I.

CHAP.

310

CHA P. IV.

GRANDEUR AND SUBLIMITY.

N

ATURE hath not more remarkably diftinguished us from other animals by an erect pofture, than by a capacious and afpiring mind, attaching us to things great and ele vated. The ocean, the fky, feize the attention, and make a deep impreffion*: robes of state are made large and full, to draw refpect we admire an elephant for its magnitude, notwithflanding its unwieldiness.

The elevation of an object affects us no less than its magnitude: a high place is chofen for the ftatue of a deity or hero: a tree growing on the brink of a precipice looks charming when viewed from the plain below: a throne is erected for the chief magiftrate; and a chair with a high feat for the prefident of a court. Among all nations, heaven is placed far above us, hell far below us.

Longinus obferves, that nature inclines us to admire, not a fmall rivulet, however clear and transparent. but the Nile, the Ifter, the Rhine, or ftill more the ocean. The fight of a small fire produceth no emotion; but we are ftruck with the boiling furnaces of Etna, pouring out whole rivers of liquid flame. Treatife of the Sublime, chap. 29.