112 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book H. 



kind, or, in other words, the Syftem, that makes their Beauty ; and 

 the greater the Syftem in any of thefe Arts, the greater the Beauty, 

 provided it can be comprehended and taken in at one view. What 

 extent of a Whole can be fo comprehended, muft depend up- 

 on the underftanding of the critic. He, of little underftanding, 

 will take in but a fmall part of a Syftem ; the Charaders, perhaps, 

 in a piece of Poetry, the Verfification, a Simile, a Defcription, or 

 fomc fucli fplendid patch : But a critic, fuch as Ariftotle, will confi- 

 der the Fable chiefly, as being that which makes the Piece a Whole, 

 and to which every thing elfe ought to be fubfcrvient ; and, as to a 

 Poem which has no Fable, fuch as a Didactic work in Verfe, or a 

 Poem of mere defcription, he will not give it the naine of a Piece. 



The laft of the three I mentioned is Virtue, concerning the Foun- 

 dation of which there has been much difpute in later times : But I 

 hold to the philofophy of Ariftotle, who has placed it in Beauty *. 

 And, firft, let us confider, What it is that gives us delight in the con- 

 templation of Virtue ; and, next, let us confider, What moves us to the 

 pradlice of Virtue? 



We contemplate virtue either in others or oun'elves. Let us firft 

 examine for what reafon we admire it in others : And I fay it is 

 merely for the Beauty of it, for the fame reafon that we admire a 



fine 



♦ This Account of Virtue is given by Ariftotle, in his Ethics or Nicomacheia, the 

 beft book of morals that ever was written, not only for the Matter, but likewife 

 for the flile, which I think a perfeft model of the Didaftic ; for it is of the 

 popular kind, not fo fliort and obfcure as the ftile of his Efoteric writings, and 

 as much adorned as a Dida£lic ftile ought to be. In- this work, he has difcriminated 

 more accurately the feveral Virtues and Vices than any other writer ; and, in ihe 

 Definition of the Virtues, he commonly adds, inicic t«w kxXou, as a condition abfo- 

 lutely iitcelTary to make it a Virtue. If this work of Ariftotle's had been diligently 

 ftudied and underftood, how many idle fyftems of morals had never been written^ 

 or, at leaft,never read by the learned ? 



