98 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO in. 



" Now on swift wheels descending like a star 

 Alights young EROS from his radiant car; 

 On angel-wings attendant Graces move, 

 And hail the God of SENTIMENTAL LOVE. 180 



animal passion of that name, with which it is frequently accompanied, 

 consists in the desire or sensation of beholding, embracing, and sa- 

 luting a beautiful object. 



The characteristic of beauty therefore is that it is the object of love; 

 and though many other objects are in common language called beau- 

 tiful, yet they are only called so metaphorically, and ought to be 

 termed agreeable. A Grecian temple may give us the pleasurable 

 idea of sublimity, a Gothic temple may give us the pleasurable idea 

 of variety, and a modern house the pleasurable idea of utility; music 

 and poetry may inspire our love by association of ideas; but none of 

 these, except metaphorically, can be termed beautiful, as we have no 

 wish to embrace or salute them. 



Our perception of beauty consists in our recognition by the sense 

 of vision of those objects, first, which have before inspired our love 

 by the pleasure, which they have afforded to many of our senses; as 

 to our sense of warmth, of touch, of smell, of taste, hunger and 

 thirst; and, secondly, which bear any analogy of form to such 

 objects. 



Alights young Eros, 1. 178. There were two deities of Love belong- 

 ing to the heathen mythology, the one said to be celestial, and the 

 other terrestrial. Aristophanes says, "Sable-winged Night produced 

 an egg, from which sprung up like a blossom Eros, the lovely, the 

 desirable, with his glossy golden wings." See Botanic Garden, 

 Canto I. 1.412. Note. The other deity of Love, Cupido, seems of 

 much later date, as he is not mentioned in the works of Homer, 

 where there were so many apt situations to have introduced him. 



