118 OF THE ANIMAL STRUCTURE 



ciples the most acknowledged, are liable to be affected in 

 the same manner. I should rather argue thus ; ihe ques- 

 tion respects objects of sight. Now every other sense hath 

 its distinction of agreeable and disagreeable. Some tastes 

 offend the palate, others gratify it. In brutes and insects, 

 this distinction is stronger, and more regular, than in man. 

 Every horse, ox, sheep, swine, when at liberty to choose, 

 and when in a natural state, that is, when not vitiated by 

 habits forced upon it, eats and rejects the same plants. 

 Many insects which feed upon particular plants, will rather 

 die than change their appropriate leaf All this looks like 

 a determination in the sense itself to particular tastes. In 

 like manner, smells affect the nose with sensations pleasur- 

 able or disgusting. Some sounds, or compositions of sound, 

 delight the ear, others torture it. Habit can do much in 

 all these cases, (and it is well for us that it can ; for it is 

 this power which reconciles us to many necessities,) but has 

 the distinction, in the mean time, of agreeable and disa- 

 greeable, no foundation in the sense itself] What is true of 

 the other senses, is most probably true of the eye, (the anal- 

 ogy is irresistible) viz. that there belongs to it an original 

 constitution, fitted to receive pleasure from some impres- 

 sions, and pain from others. 



I do not however know that the argument which al- 

 leges beauty as a final cause, rests upon this concession. 

 We possess a sense of beauty, however we come by it. It 

 in fact exists. Things are not indifferent to this sense ; 

 all objects do not suit it ; many, which we see, are agree- 

 able to it, many others disagreeable. It is certainly not 

 the effect of habit upon the particular object, because the 

 most agreeable objects are often the most rare ; many, 

 which are very common, continue to be offensive. If they 

 be made supportable by habit, it is all which habit can do ; 

 they never iDecome agreeable. If this sense, therefore, be 

 acquired, it is a result ; the produce of numerous and com- 

 plicated actions of external objects upon the senses, and of 

 the mind upon its sensations. With this result there 

 must be a certain congruity to enable any particular ob- 

 ject to please; and that congruity, we contend, is con- 

 sulted in the aspect which is given to animal and vegetable 

 bodies. 



IV. The skin and covering of animals is that upon 

 which their appearance chiefly depends, and it is that part 

 which, perhaps, in all animals is most decorated ; and most 

 free from impurities. But were beauty, or agreeableness 



