274 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



and the only pleafure that the Intelledual mind enjoys, but that it is 

 of the greatefl: ufe in human Ufe. But there are other two things, 

 which I have not yet mentioned, and thefe of very much greater 

 importance in human life ; I mean virtue and rehgion, with which 

 Beauty is effentially conneded. 



From Ariftotle I have learned that Beauty is the principle of vir- 

 tue *; for he has defined virtue to be 'Ocy.r, Tfcg ro ku/.ov, that is, a 

 natural^ or viJliuBtve, as it may be called, propenfity towards ihe beau- 

 tiful; but he has added very properly to the definition, /Asra Xo7ou,that 

 iSywith reafoUy ox guided by reqfoti. And accordingly I have fliown 

 in a preceding chapter f, that the fenfe of the beautiful, if not govern- 

 ed and conduced by reafon, leads to very great vices, follies, and 

 crimes ; whereas, if it be properly conducted, it makes men not on- 

 ly virtuous, but alfo religious, (as I Ihall fliow in the fequel), and 

 confequently happy. 



With Ariftotlc's phllofophy as to virtue the philofophy of the 

 Pythagorean fchool perfectly agrees. This fchool was the mod 

 antient and the beft fchool of philofophy that ever was in Greece : 

 For Pythagoras was twenty two years in Egypt, the parent country 

 of philofopliy and all the other fciences; from which country he firfl: 

 imported philofophy intoItaly,and thence it was brought intoGreecet. 

 The teftimony of Pythagoras in fupport of this dodrine of Ariftotle 

 I have elfewhere quoted § ; and Plato has told us, from the mouth 

 of Socrates, that to know perfedly what Beauty is, or the avro . to 

 xaXoi-, is the greateft wildom and the greatefl happinefs of men ||. 



And 



• Vol. V. p. 125. t P. 221. 



■\. See what I have faid of this extraordinary man in the Preface to the 3d Vol. of 

 this work, p. 14. and following. 



« Ibid. p. 34. 



3 Vol. V. of this work, p. 122. See alfo p. 197 of this VoL 



