Chap, ii.] [ 463 ] 



CHAP. XL 



OF BEAUTY. 



Of Beauty in general. Original.- From dffbciation* -Nature 

 and Art. 



WE may fay in general of beauty, that it is fome 

 quality in objects capable of exciting unmixed 

 ideas of pleafure, independent of the gratification of 

 any of the animal appetites. This definition does not 

 differ much from that of Plato, " To h o^tus KOH UKOVK 

 ih *." Perhaps we give this pre-eminence to the 

 pleafures not depending on appetite, as they are 

 the moft innocent, and leaft liable to difguft and 

 fatiety f. 



The principal diftinction between the pleafure af- 

 forded by fublime objects, and that by thofe which we 

 term beautiful, feems to be, that the latter is pure 

 unmixed pleafure from the gentle agitation, whereas 

 the formerJporders upon pain (arifing from fome com- 

 pound of the paflion of fear) and is often not unmixed 

 with actual pain, and always requires a greater exer- 

 tion, and produces a more violent agitation of the or- 

 gans of fenTe. 



* '" The pleafant to the fenfes of fight and hearing." Plato, 

 fiippias major. 



f Ib. Beauty is never properly applied to the fenfe of tafting, 

 as it feems too coarfe an enjoyment to be reckoned among the ra- 

 tional ones. 



The 



