134 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



what makes the happinefs bellowed upon us by virtue, and by the 

 ftudy of arts and fciences. 



Thus, I think, I have proved a priori^ and from the nature of the 

 thing, that Beauty is a perception of our intelledtual mind, not of 

 our animal or lenfitive. And if there were any doubt in theory, it is 

 proved by fa£l and obfervation : For the brutes, who have not the 

 intelleflual mind, have no idea of the Beautiful or Deformed, nor 

 has a man, who is fo little removed from the mere animal ftate, that 

 he has little or no ufe of intelled:. This is the cafe of Caraibs who 

 inhabit the Antilles Iflands, pofTefTed by the French. Of them we 

 have a v^rj particular account from Father Tertre, in his hiftory of 

 thofe iflands *, where he fhows, that living without fociety or go- 

 vernment, and each family by itfelf, in the Cyclopian manner, they 

 have not the leaft fenfe of the Pidchrum and Honejium^ but eat, 

 drink, and do every thing in the mofl brutifh manner. And, as they 

 are the nearefl: to the animal flate, they are the filthieft, and the mofl 

 nafty of the human kind, that w^e have yet heard of. 



As this fenfe of the Beautiful, the ro -aoXov of the Greeks, and the 

 pulchrum and hotieftum of the Latins, is fo eflJential to intelled, that 

 we cannot conceive intellect without it, it follows of necefliiry con- 

 fequence, that, as man is an intelledual creature, this fenfe mull be 

 common among men ; fo common, that there is hardly any adlion 

 proceeding from intelledl, that is from deliberation and choice, which 

 is not influenced more or lefs by this fenfe. Even our mofl: fenfual 

 appetites, fuch as thofe of eating and drinking, if they are not ex- 

 cited by this fenfe, are adorned by it; and, on that account, more de- 

 fired than they would otherwife be. But as there is a right fenfe 

 of the Beautiful, fo there is a wrong fenfe, which often leads men 

 into the greatefl: errors, and into pra<i^ices the mofl; mifchievous; 



and 



* Tom. 2. p. 388. 



