Yet, even as to Grace itfelf, under the Notion of Pleafingness (as I was juft now calling it,) it may become almost universal; and be as fubject to the Dominion of Fancy, as any of the lefs fignificant Parts of Beauty. A Parent can see Genteel nefs, in the most aukward Child, perhaps, that ever was born; and a Person who is truly in Love, will be pleased with every Motion and Air of the Perfon beloved; which is the most diftinguishing Character that belongs to Grace. 'Tis true, this is all a miftaken Grace; but, as to that particular Perfon, it has all the Effects of the true.

Since I have spoken of this Extent and Universality of fuppofed Beauty, it would be very ungrateful not to say something of the real Beauty of the other Works of Nature; which feem to reach everywhere, as far as we are acquainted with them; and to meet us, which-ever Way we turn our Eyes.

If we look upon the Earth, we see it laid out in a Thousand beautiful Inequalities, and a pleasing Variety of Plains, Hills, and Mountains; generally cloathed by Nature in a living Green, the Color that is the most delightful and the most refreshing to the Eye; diverfified with an Infinity of different Lights and Shades adorned with various Sorts of Trees, Fruits, and Flowers; interfperfed often with winding Rivers, or limpid Streams, or spreading Lakes; or terminating, perhaps, on a View of the Sea,

:

which

which is for ever changing its Form, and in every Form is pleafing.

If we look up to the Heavens, how charming are the Rifing of the Sun, the gentle Azure of the noble Arch expanded over our Heads, the various Appearance and Colors of the Clouds, the fleeting Shower, and the painted Bow! Even in the Abfence of its great Enlivener, the Sun, we fee it all ftudded with living Lights, or gilded by the more folemn Beauties of the Moon; most pleasing in her infant Shape, and moft majeftic, when in her full Orb. I know not how it may be with others, but to me the very Lightnings are pleafing, when ftruggling amidst the shaded Clouds; and thofe Fires that dart and waver upwards, fometimes in various Colors, and fometimes with Streams of gentle Light, not unlike the Break of Day, on the first Appearance of the Morning, from whence they have their Name,

If we turn toward the different Sorts of Animals, it is obfervable enough among them, that the Beauty which is defigned chiefly to please one another in their own Species, is fo contrived as to diffuse Pleasure to those of other Species, or at least to Man. How beautiful, even to us, are the Colors that adorn the Necks of the Pigeon and Pheasant; the Train of the Mackaw and Peacock; and the whole Dress of feveral Sorts of Birds, more particularly in the Eastern Parts of the World? How neat and pleafing is the Make of the Deer, the Greyhound, and several Sorts of Horfes? How beautiful is the Expreffion of E 4

the

the Paffions, in a faithful Dog? And they are not even without fome Degrees of Grace; as may be feen, in particular, in the natural Motions of a Chinefe Pheasant; or the acquired ones, of a managed Horse. And I the rather take Part of the Beauty of all thefe Creatures to be meant, by the Bounty of Nature, for us; because most of the different Sorts of Sea Fish (which live chiefly out of our Sight) are of Colors and Forms more hideous, or (at best) lefs agreeable to us.

And as the Beauty of one Species of Animals may be fo defigned and adapted, as to give Pleafure to many others; fo the Beauty of different Worlds may not be confined to each, but be carried on from one World to another, and from one Syftem of Worlds to another; and may end in one great universal Beauty, of all created Matter taken in one View. How far this may hold, we are, as yet, incapable even of forming any Guefs; but fome late Discoveries have fhewn, that there is a furprifing Symmetry and Proportion in the Sizes and Difpofition of the feveral Worlds in our own Syftem; from whence one would be apt to imagine, that the fame Beauty of Proportion is kept up between the Worlds of other Systems; and poffibly, even between one Syftem and another: At least, all that we know of these Worlds, are exactly proportioned; and all that we fee of them, is beautiful. Thus all fuch of them as come within our View, make what we call a fine ftarry Heaven; and as they compose that beautiful Object to us, fo does cur Syftem make a Part in fe

vera!

veral of their Prospects; and may be, in the great Compofition of the Universe, a little fingle Stud in a noble Piece of mofaic Work.

And yet all the Profufion of Beauty I have been fpeaking of, and even that of the whole Universe taken together, is but of a weaker Nature in Comparison of the Beauty of Virtue. It was extremely well faid by Plato, That if Virtue was to appear in a vifible Shape, all Men would be enamoured of her: And it seems as if the Greeks and Romans in general had had this Idea of her Beauty, because the Goddefs of Virtue, and the Goddess of Wisdom (which was often taken for one and the fame Thing among them, as well as in our Sacred Writings,) were always represented with the greatest and most commanding Beauty. The fame appears yet ftronger from their using the Words Good [n] and Beautiful indifferently for each other; as if all Beauty was contained in Goodness.

Indeed the Beauty of Virtue or Goodness exceeds all other Beauty, as much as the Soul does the Body.

The highest Object of Beauty that we can see is the Goodness of God, as difplayed in the Works of the Creation. In him all Goodness and Beauty dwells; and whatever there is of moral Beauty in the whole Univerfe befide, is only as fo many Ema

[η] Καλον, Πρεπον, Pulchrum, Honeftum,

nations

nations from the divine Author of all that is Good and Beautiful.

We fometimes fee a few feeble Rays of this Beauty reflected in human Actions, but much difcoloured by the Medium through which they pafs; and yet how charming do they even thus appear in fome Perfons, and on fome Occafions? All the Grandeur in the World is as nothing in Comparifon of any one of thefe good becoming Deeds. How many more Charms are there, for Inftance, in the Actions of fuch an humble Person as the Man of Rofs, than in all the Victories of our Edwards and our Harries? or (to go farther back in History) how much more amiable is the Death of Socrates, than the whole Life of Alexander the Great ?.

As Virtue is the fupreme Beauty, so is Vice the moft odious of all Deformities. I do not know how to make this more evident to you by any Inftance, than by that of the different Conduct of Two very celebrated Poets, Milton and Taffo, in defcribing the fallen Angels: Taffe's Devils are chiefly made hideous by their Shape; their Horns and Tails are the principal Ingredients of Deformity in his Defcriptions of them; whereas Milton generally omits those little Particulars, and paints out the Deformity of their Minds; their Pride, Impiety, Malignity, and Obftinacy; by which Means his Devils are tenfold more Devils, and more odious and horrible to the Reader, than thofe of the Italian Poet.

There