ii6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



not be without PJeafure, and that Pleafure is certainly not of the 

 Senlual, but of the Intelle(flual kind, which, as I have fhown, can 

 only arife from the contemplation of Beauty. The cafe I have fup- 

 pofed never did, nor ever will exift ; which fhows that it is a matter 

 of fadt, as well as of reafon and argument, that there can be no Vir- 

 tue without a fenfe of the Beautiful, and that the dulcc and decorum 

 do both neceflarily belong to it. 



The moft of our modern writers upon Virtue feem to forget that 

 it belongs to the Intelledual part of our nature, and not to the Ani- 

 mal ; and I am afraid a great part of them are not philofophers e- 

 nough to be able rightly to make the diftindtion betwixt thefe two 

 natures. Good and natural affe<ltions, fuch as Animals have for 

 themfelves, their offspring, and their kind, they call Virtue ; and they 

 only blame the excefs of one of thefe afFe(5lions above another, fo as 

 to deftroy what they call the Balance of Affedions in the Mind : But 

 they are not agreed among themfelves which of thefe Affedions con- 

 ftitutes Virtue. Some fay it is only tlie Affedion towards the kind, 

 or to others, which they call Benevolence, that is a Virtuous At- 

 fedion : Others again, and among thefe our Scottifh philofopher Mr 

 David Hume, make Virtue to confift only in Utility ; fo that every 

 Affedion, according to him, which has that for its objed, is virtu- 

 ous : And, in this, as well as in other points, he endeavours to re- 

 vive the philofophy of Epicurus, whofe maxim it was, that 



Utilitas, jufti prope mater et aequi *. 



But the truth is, that, as Virtue belongs to our Intelledual Nature, 

 and to that only, no Affedions of any kind, however good or na- 

 tural, nor any perception of Pleafure in tnefe Affedions, or in the 

 adions proceeding from them, conftitutes Virtue ; becaufe Virtue 

 cannot be without, 7?r/?, previous Confideration, Choice, and Delibe- 

 ration, and, fecondly, a reflex ad of the I.lind, approving of itfelf, 

 and enjoying that Pleafure which belongs to Intelled only ; I mean 

 the Pleafure of Beauty. This is properly fpeaking, what is called 



Virtue, 

 * Horat. lib. i. Satyr. 3. 



