All the other Parts of Beauty are pleafing in fome Degree, but Grace is Pleafingness itfelf; and the old Romans in general feem to have had this Notion of it; as may be inferred from the original Import [b] of the Names which they used for this Part of Beauty.

The Greeks, as well as the Romans, must have been of this Opinion; when, in fettling their Mythology, they made the Graces the conftant Attendants of Venus, or the Caufe of Love; and, in Fact, there is nothing caufes Love fo generally, and fo irrefiftibly, as Grace. 'Tis like the Ceftus of the fame Goddess, which was supposed to comprehend [i]

[b] Gratia, from gratus, or pleafing; and decor, from decens, or becoming.

[i] Η, και απο ςηθεσφιν ελύσαλο με τον ἱμανία
Ποικιλον ενθα δε οι θελκτηρία πανία τελυκλο.
Ενθ' ενι μεν Φιλότης, εν δ' Ιμερω, εν δ ̓ Οκρίσυς.
Παρφασις, ἡ τ' εκλεψε νοον πυκα περ φρονεονίων
Τον ρα οι εμβαλε χερσιν, επι τ' εφατ', εκ τ' ονόμαζε.
Τη νυν τελον ἱμανία, τεῳ δ' εγκα θεο κολπῳ,
Ποικιλον, ᾧ ενι πανία τελευχαίαι· ουδε σε φημι
Απρηκίον γε νεεθαι, ό,τι φρεσι σησι μενοινας.

Ως φαλο, μείδησεν δε βοωπις πόνια Ηρη
Μειδήσασα δ' επεία έω εγκα θείο κολπῳ.

Hom. Il. ξ. 214.

She faid; with Awe divine, the Queen of Love
Obey'd the Sister and the Wife of Jove :
And from her fragrant Breaft the Zone unbrac'd,
With various Skill and high Embroid❜ry grac❜d.
In this was ev'ry Art, and ev'ry Charm,

To win the wifeft, and the coldest warm:
Fond Love, the gentle Vow, the gay Defire,
The kind Deceit, the ftill reviving Fire,

D 4

every

every thing that was winning and engaging in it ; and befide all, to oblige the Heart to Love, by a fecret and inexplicable Force, like that of some magic Charm.

AS CRITO paused here, both MILESIUS and TIMANTHES thanked him for his Account of a Thing, which they had never heard fo far accounted for before; and the latter added, that in his Divifion of the Parts which conftitute Beauty, he, at first, thought him guilty of an Omiffion, in not adding a Fifth, that of Motion. CRITO faid, that

Perfuafive Speech, and more perfuafive Sighs,
Silence that fpoke, and Eloquence of Eyes.
This on her Hand the Cyprian Goddess laid;

Take this, and with it all thy Wish, she said:

With Smiles she took the Charm; and fmiling preft

The pow'rful Ceftus to her fnowy Breast.

Pope, Il. xiv. 256.

La Motte's Imitation of the fame Paffage, is extremely good too; though he adds a French Flourish at the End of it.

Ce tiffu, le fimbole & la cause à la fois

Du pouvoir de l'amour, du charme de ses loix.
Elle enflamme les yeux, de cet ardeur qui touche;
D'un fourire enchanteur, elle anime la bouche:
Paffionne la voix, en adoucit les fons:

Prête ces tours heureux, plus forts que les raifons:
Inspire, pour toucher, ces tendres stratagêmes;
Ces refus attirans, l' ecueil des fages mêmes :
Et la nature enfin y voulut renfermer
Tout ce qui perfuade, & ce qui fait aimer.

En prenant ce tiffu, que Venus lui prefente,
Junon n'étoit que belle, elle devient charmante.
Les graces, & les ris, les plaifirs, & les jeux,
Surpris cherchent Venus; doutent qui l' eft des deux :
L'Amour même trompé, trouve Junon plus belle;
Et, fon arc à la main, deja vole après elle,

he

he had not forgot that, but thought it was comprehended under the other Heads. For all genteel Motion (fays he,) as I have been fo lately mentioning, falls under the Article of Grace; whence Horace calls it by it's true Name of graceful Motion; and common Motions are only fo many Variations of the Attitude, or Pofition of the particular Parts of the Body, and Features of the Face: The more fignificant of which, belong to the Article of the Paffions; and the lefs fignificant, may be comprehended under that of mere Form or Figure. And now I mention Horace, added he, it is obfervable enough, that he, and the other Roman Authors, have diftinct Names for each of my Four conftituent Parts of Beauty, which the Commentators and Dictionary-writers have been fometimes too apt to mistake for Names of Beauty in general. Thus for the First they use the Word Color; for the Secord, Forma; for the Third, they seem to have had several diftinct Names, according to the different Sorts of Paffions whofe Delightfulness they spoke of; for the Fourth, they ufed Gratia and Decor, when they spoke of it in general; and Venuftas or Dignitas, when they had a mind to be more particular. Their Word Nitor too [k], and fome others of a like Import, which feem fometimes to be ufed in general for Beauty,

[]

Liparæi nitor Hebri.

Horat. Lib. iii. Od. xii. 6.

Urit me Glyceræ nitor
Splendentis Pario marmore purius.

Id. Lib. i. Od. xix. 6.

The Epithets marmoreus, eburneus, and candidus, are all applied to Beauties by the Roman Poets; fometimes as to their Shape, and sometimes as to the Shiningness here spoken of.

belong

belong more properly to that fuperficial Sort of Beauty, which I mentioned in part under the First Head, in fpeaking of the filky Appearance of the Skin, and the Luminousness in fome Eyes. But to talk of Things rather than Words; I fhould be willing to add fome general Obfervations that I have made, at Times, in thinking on this Subject.

It has been obferved by fome Writers, that there is naturally a great deal of Propriety in Pleasure; or, in other Words, that Pleafure is annexed by Nature to fuch Things as are proper for our Prefervation, and Pain to fuch as would be deftructive to us. Thus Pleasure, for Example, is annexed to Food and Exercife; and Pain, to fuch Degrees of Abftinence and Indolence as would be hurtful. The fame may be observed in the different Sort of Pleafures, adapted to each Stage of human Life. Thus in Infancy, when Growth is as necessary as Support, we have more frequent Returns of Appetite, and more Pleasure in Feeding; and as frequent Feeding requires the more Exercife, the chief Pleasure of that Age confifts in the Love of Motion, and in a Series of little fportive Exercises. The fame is carried on in other Pleasures, equally adapted to the middle and latter Stages of Life; fo far, that wherever Nature has affixed a Pleasure, the feems to lead and conduct us toward fome Duty or other; either for the Prefervation of the Individual, or the Continuance of the Species.

There is a great deal of the fame Propriety to be obferved, in the Difpenfation of Beauty and Deformity.

mity. The good Paffions are all pleafing; and the bad, difagreeable. Virtue is naturally the moft beautiful and lovely Thing in the World; and Vice the most odious and deformed.

There is also a Propriety in the Timing of Beauty. Thus, for Inftance, a Peach or a Pine-apple are in their highest Beauty, juft at the Time that they should be eat. They want a Ripeness of Colors, as well as of Tafte, till they come to that State; and gradually decay in Beauty, as they go farther and farther from it.

It might found odd to you, if I should say, that a Woman is like a Pine-apple; yet the Similitude would hold much farther, and in more Particulars, than any one would at firft imagine. She has her Seafon of growing to her greatest State of Beauty, of Continuance in it, and of a Decay from it, as well as that; and the highest Season of their Beauty is just as properly timed in the one Cafe, as in the other.

As to the Quantity of Beauty, in particular Perfons, I have fometimes had a Thought, which may ferve (at least) to divert you. You know that Monf. de Piles, in his Lives of the Painters, has laid down a Scale by which one may judge of their comparative Excellence. Now I fhould think, that a Scale might be fettled in the fame Manner, by which one might judge tolerably well of the proportional Excellence in any of our most celebrated Beauties. In this Scale, I would fet the higheft Excellence in Color, at Ten;

in