Chap. VII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 121 



al and immaterial, fome principal and fome fubfervient, but all unit- 

 ed together fo as to form that fyftem (and a wonderful fyftenl it is) 

 which we call an animal, is an obje(5l of this kind. 



It is very well obferved by Ariftotle in his Poetics"*", that we can- 

 not admire Beauty in an animal that is either very fmall or very 

 large : For if it be very fmall, we cannot perceive the different 

 parts of it ; and if very great, we cannot comprehend it in our 

 mind. Such, he fays, would be an animal of 10,000 ftadia : And 

 he lays it down as a general propofition upon this fubjed:, which" 

 ought to be attended to, that, in every animal, and eveiy thing which 

 confifls of parts, thefe parts mufl not only be properly ordered and 

 arranged, but they mufl have a certain fize or greatnefs ; for, fayt> 

 he, beauty confifls in greatnefs and in order. His words are, To yoLo 

 zaT^ov sv {^sye^ii fcoci Ta^u scti. And I will add, that the greater the 

 things are in fize or in number, the greater the beauty is, if it be 

 sva-vvQTnovy as he calls it, that is can be readily comprehended in our 

 minds. From what Ariftotle fays here, it is evident that he con- 

 ceived Beauty as I do, not to confift in the perception of a fmgle 

 thing, but of feveral things conneded together ; which connexion 

 we mufl perceive, otherwife we cannot have any idea of Beauty* 



This is Ariftotle's idea of Beauty, which I have adopted. But I 

 cannot help obferving it as a thing extraordinary, that Ariftotle 

 fhould only have given us a definition of the to ko(,Xoi> in his Poetics, 

 and not in his philofophical work upon Morals, confifting of three 

 parts, the Nicomacheia^ the Magna Moralia^ and the Eudcmia', in 

 each of which he has mentioned the 10 v-^y^ov almoft in every 

 page: For he mentions it in the account he gives of every virtue. 

 As to Plato, he has written a whole Dialogue upon the fubjcd, en- 

 titled Hippias Major) in which he refutes feveral opinions concern- 

 ing the -tq kolXqv^ but gives no opinion of his own ; and concludes 



Vol. IV. Q^ the 



* Cap. 16. 



