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as we may guefs from the [g] Languages of feveral Nations; in which fome Words that anfwer to our Proper or Becoming, are used indifferently for Beautiful or Graceful.

And yet I cannot think (as fome feem inclined to do) that Grace confifts entirely in Propriety; be cause Propriety is a Thing eafy enough to be underflood, and Grace (after all we can fay about it) very difficult. Propriety therefore and Grace are no more one and the same Thing, than Grace and Motion are: 'Tis true, it cannot fubfift without either; but then there feems to be fomething else, what I cannot explain, and what I do not know that ever any body has explained, that goes to the Composition; and which poffibly may give its greatest Force and Pleafingness.

Whatever are the Caufes of it, this is certain, that Grace is the chief of all the conftituent Parts of Beauty; and so much so, that it seems to be the only one which is abfolutely and univerfally admired: All the reft are only relative. One likes a brunette Beauty better than a fair one; I may love a little Woman, and you a large one, beft; a Perfon of a mild Temper will be fond of the gentler Paffions in the Face, and one of a bolder Eaft may choose to have more Vivacity and more vigorous Paffions expreffed there: But Grace is found in few, and is pleasing to all.

Grace, like Poetry, must be born with a Perfon; and is never, wholly, to be acquired by Art.

[g] Thus, among the Greeks, the Words Пgerov and Καλον, and among the Romans, Pulchrum and Decens, or Decorum, are used indifferently for one another.

The

The most celebrated of all the ancient Painters, was Apelles; and the most celebrated of all the Modern, Raphael: And it is remarkable, that the diftinguishing Character of each of them was Grace. Indeed, that alone could have given them so high a Pre-eminence over all their other Competitors.

Grace has nothing to do with the lowest Part of Beauty, or Color; very little with Shape, and very much with the Paffions; for it is the who gives their highest Zeft, and the most delicious Part of their Pleafingness to the Expreffions of each of them.

All the other Parts of Beauty are pleafing in fome Degree, but Grace is Pleafingness itself; 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 Cause of Love; and, in Fact, there is nothing causes Love fo generally, and fo irresistibly, as Grace. 'Tis like the Ceftus of the fame Goddefs, which was fuppofed to comprehend [i] every thing that was winning and en

gaging

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

[1] Η, και απο ςηθεσφιν ελυταίο κεσον ἱμανία.

Ποικιλον ενθα δε οι θελκτήρια πανια τελυκλο.
Ενθ' ενός μεν Φιλολης, εν δ' ΙμερΘ, εν δ' Ο αρίςυς..
Παρφασις, ἡ τ' εκλεψε νοο, πυκα τ
πες φροντόλων
Τον ρα οἱ εμβαλε χερσι, επι τ' εφατ', εκ τ' ονόμαζε.

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gaging in it; and befide all, to oblige the Heart to Love, by a fecret and inexplicable Force, like that of fome magic Charm.

Τη νυν τελεν ἱμανία, τεῳδ' εγκα θεο κολπῳ,
Ποικιλον, ᾧ ενα πανία τελευχαίαι· ουδε σε φημι
Απρηκτον γε νεεσθαι, ό, τι φρεσι σῃσι μενοινας.
Ως φαλο, μείδησεν δε βοωπις ποίνια Ηρη
Μειδησασα δ' επειδα ἑῳ εγκα θεῖο κολπῳ. Hom. Il ξ.214.
She faid; with Awe divine, the Queen of Love
Obey'd the Sifter and the Wife of Jove :

And from her fragrant Breaft the Žone 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,
Perfuafive Speech, and more perfuafive Sighs,
Silence that fpoke, and Eloquence of Eyes.
This on her Hand the Cyprian Goddefs laid;
Take this, and with it all thy Wish, the faid:
With Smiles fhe took the Charm; and fmiling preft
The pow'rful Ceftus to her fnowy Breaft. Pope, II.
xiv. 256.

La Motte's Imitation of the fame Paffage, is extremely

good toothough he adds a FrenchFlourish at the End of it.

Ce tiffu, le fimbole & la caufe à la fois

Du pouvoir de l'amour, du charme de fes 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 :

Prete ces tours heureux, plus forts que les raifons :
Infpire, pour toucher, ces tendres ftratagêmes;
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 tiflu, 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.

As

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 Omission, in not adding a Fifth, that of Motion. CRITO faid, that he had not forgot that,but thought itwas comprehended under the other Heads. For all genteel Motion (fays he,) as I have been so 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 distinct Names for each of my Four conftituent Parts of Beauty,which the Commentators and Dictionary-writers have been fometimes too apt to miftake for Names of Beauty in general. Thus for the First they use the Word Color; for the Second, Forma; for the Third, they seem to have had several diftin&t Names, according to the different Sorts of Paffions whose 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

Nitor took [k], and fome others of a like Import, which feem fometimes to be used in general for Beauty, 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 Luminoufness in some Eyes. But to talk of Things rather than Words; I should be willing to add some general Observations that I have made, at Times, in thinking on this Subje&t.

It has been obferved by fome Writers, that there is naturally a great deal of Propriety in Pleafure; or, in other Words, that Pleasure is annexed by Nature to fuch Things as are proper for our Preservation, and Pain to fuch as would be deftru&ive to us. Thus Pleafure, 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 obferved in the different Sorts of Pleasures, adapted to each Stage of human Life. Thus in Infancy, when Growth is as neceffary as Support, we have more frequent Returns of Appetite, and more Pleasure in Feeds

[k] Od. xii. 6.

Liparæi nitor Hebri.

Horat. Lib. iii.

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 fometimes as to the Shiningness here spoken of.

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