276 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



fevereft punifliments upon thofe who offended him, yet, if he had 

 net bcdUty, he could not be loved, though he would be feared. But 

 God is a being of fupreme intelligence and fupreme goodnefs ; which 

 two qualities together muft make him the moft amiable of beings, 

 who therefore muft be loved by every man who knows him : And 

 though he be likewife an objedt of fear, yet our fcripture tells us, 

 that our love of God " muft not be mixed with fear *." 



The reader may be furprifed that I have written fo much upon 

 the fubjctft of Beauty in this volume and in other parts of this work. 

 But he Ihould confider that Beauty, as 1 have Hiid, is univerfal in 

 nature, and of much greater influence than any other thing in human 

 life, not only being, as 1 have fhown, the principle of virtue, of reli- 

 gion, and of honour "f, but alfo having a connection, more or lefs, 

 with almoft every adtion of our life; and that Plato, as I. have ob- 

 ferved before, from the mouth of Socrates, has told us, "that, to know 

 perfedlly what Beauty is, or the avro to xaAoi', is the greateft wif- 

 dom and the greateft happinefs of men. 



I will only fay further upon this fubje6t, that thofe, who deny that 

 Beauty has a real exiftence in nature and hold that it exifts only in 

 the imaginations of men, deny at the fame time that the intellectual 

 mind enjoys any real pleafure. That it does not enjoy fenfual plea- 

 fures, every body muft allow : But I fay further, that even wealth 

 and power give no pleafure to the intellectual mind, except by af- 

 fording it the means of enjoying the pleafure of doing good, by re- 

 lieving the diftreffes of the poor, rewarding the virtuous, and ferving 

 the public. Such perfons therefore muft alfo deny that virtue gives 

 any pleal'ure to the intelledual mind ; and that the beauty of holinefs, 

 and the contemplation of the wifdom and goodnefs of God give 



pleafure 



* Sec p. 391 of Vol. IV. 

 f Vol. V. p. 125. 



