223 



beauty*. What then are envy and re- 

 venge ? are they in a less degree modes of 

 hatred ? Yet those who are most averse to 

 any distinctions in the other case, would 

 hardly object to it in this, or venture to say- 

 that all the useful purposes of language 

 would be answered, if there were only one 

 term, to express every different mode of ill- 

 will towards our fellow-creatures. In the 

 usual progress of society towards refine- 

 ment, as new distinctions arise, new terms 

 are invented ; and it is in a great measure 

 from their abundance, or their scarcity, that 

 the richness, or the poverty of any language 

 is estimated, while its precision no less 

 depends on the accuracy with which they 

 are employed. 



It may here very naturally be asked, how 

 it could happen that certain distinctions of 

 characters, which, according to my state- 

 ment, are plain and manifest, should so long 

 have been very inaccurately made out, 



# The difference between the general, and the confined 

 sense of beauty, is discussed in my letter to Mr. Repton, 

 page 135. 



