quently perceiving the parts of the human and other animal bodies to be at once very beautiful, and very well adapted to their purposes; and we are deceived by a sophism, which makes us take that for a cause which is only a concomitant; this is the fophifm of the fly; who imagined he raised a great duft, because he ftood upon the chariot that really raised it. The ftomach, the lungs, the liver, as well as other parts, are incomparably well adapted to their purposes; yet they are far from having any beauty. Again, many things are very beautiful, in which it is impoffible to discern any idea of use. And I appeal to the first and most natural feelings of mankind, whether on beholding a beautiful eye, or a wellfashioned mouth, or a well-turned leg, any ideas of their being well fitted for feeing, eating, or running, ever present themselves. What idea of use is it that flowers excite, the most beautiful part of the vegetable world? It is true, that the infinitely wife and good Creator has of his bounty, frequently joined beauty to those things which he has made useful to us; but this does not prove that an idea of use and beauty are the fame thing, or that they are any way dependent on each other. SECT. VII. The real effects of FITNESS. HEN I excluded proportion and WH I did not by any means intend to say that they were of no value, or that they ought to be difregarded in works of art. Works of art are the proper sphere of their power; and here it is that they have their full effect. Whenever the wifdom of our Creator intended that we fhould be affected with any thing, he did not confide the execution of his defign to the languid and precarious ope ration of our reafon; but he endued it. with powers and properties that prevent the understanding, and even the will, which feizing upon the fenfes and imagination, captivate the foul before the understanding is ready either to join with them or to oppose them. It is by a long deduction and much study that we discover the adorable wifdom of God in his works: when we difcover it, the effect is very different, not only in the manner of acquiring it, but in its own nature, from that which ftrikes us without any preparation from the fublime or the beautiful. How different is the fatisfaction of an anatomift, who difcovers the ufe of the mufcles and of the fkin, the excellent contrivance of the one for the various movements of the body, and the wonderful texture of the other, at once a general covering, and at once a general outlet as well as inlet; how different is this from the affe tion which poffeffes an ordinary man at at the fight of a delicate smooth skin, and all the other parts of beauty which require no investigation to be perceiv ed? In the former cafe, whilst we look up to the maker with admiration and praise, the object which caufes it may be odious and diftafteful; the latter very often fo touches us by its power on the imagination, that we examine but little into the artifice of its contrivance; ande we have need of a strong effort of our reason to disentangle our minds from the allurements of the object to a confideration of that wisdom which invented fo powerful a machine. The effect of proportion and fitness, at least so far as they proceed from a mere confideration of the work itself, produce approbation, the acquiefcence of the understanding, but not love, nor any paffion of that fpecies. When we examine the ftructure of a watch, when we come to know thoroughly the 'ufe of every part of it, fatisfied as we are with the fitnefs 0 4 nefs of the whole, we are far enough: from perceiving any thing like beauty in the watch-work itself; but let us look on the cafe, the labour of fome curious artift in engraving, with little or no idea of ufe, we shall have a much livelier idea of beauty than we ever could have had from the watch itself, though the mafter-piece of Graham. In beauty, as I faid, the effect is previous to any knowledge of the ufe; but to judge of proportion, we must know the end for which any work is defigned. According to the end the proportion varies. Thus there is one proportion of a tower, another of an houfe; one proportion of a gallery, another of an hall, another of a chamber. To judge of the proportions of these, you must be first acquainted with the purposes for which they were defigned. Good fenfe and experience acting together, find out what is fit to be done in every work of art. We are rational creatures, and in all our works |