Chap. XV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 197 



given us any definition of it. Ariftotle, indeed, has told us one 

 property of it, that it muft confift of tilings which are not very 

 fmall; — nor yet very great, fuch as, he fays, an animal of 10,000 

 ftadia would be*. This, I think, fhows that he confidered beauty as 

 belonging only to material or corporeal things: Whereas, I think, it 

 is evident, as I have faid in the volume above referred tof, that we 

 perceive Beauty not only in corporeal objcds but in minds, that is, 

 in charadlers and fentiments and in the works from thefe proceeding; 

 and, indeed, this is the beauty of the higheft kind. As to Plato, 

 though he has written a whole Dialogue, which he calls the tvt/.7rono\' 

 or the Banquet, upon the fubje£l of Bcant)\ he has not told us what 

 it is ; and though he makes Socrates, who is a fpeaker there, fay, 

 " That to know perfectly what Beauty is, or the ^avro ro x.ay.ov, is 

 " the greateft wifdom and the greateft happinefs of men :(:," yet he 

 has not fo much as attempted to give us a definition of it : And 

 he has written another Dialogue upon the fubjedl, as I have ob- 

 ferved in the paflage above quoted §, entitled, Hippias Major ^ in 

 which he refutes fevcral opinions concerning the ro xx?'.ov, but 

 gives no opinion of his own, concluding the Dialogue with the 

 common Greek proverbial faying, y^iM'Trcx, ru }ccc?m. Cicero, alfo 

 fpeaking of the pulcbrum and honcjluniy inftead of giving us a 

 definition of it, refers us to the natural fcnfe which every one 

 has of it : His words are, Honcjium igitur id intelligimus, quod tale 

 eji, ut, detraHa o>nui utilitate, fine uUis praemiis frucl'ibufve, per fe'tp- 



Jiim poffit jure laudari : B>uod quale fit, uon tarn definitionc, qua fum 

 ufus, inlelligi potejly (quauquain aliquant um potcjl), quain communi 

 omnium judicio, et optimi cuju/que Jludiis at que fadlis; qui pennulta 

 cb earn unam caufam faciunt, quia decet, quia re&twi, quia hontjlum 



■ eJl, et/i nullum corifecuturum emolumtntum vident jj. So that Cicero 



not 



* See Vol. V. p. 121. t Page 123 



X Ibid. p. 122. S ^^'''^- P- l^'- 



U Lib. II. Z>.- Flmhis, Cap. 14. 



