ing; 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 sportive 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 Pleafure, fhe 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. The good Paffions are all pleasing; and the bad, disagreeable. Virtue is naturally the most beautiful and lovely Thing in the World; and Vice the most odious and deformed. There is alfo a Propriety in the Timing of Beauty. Thus, for Inftance, a Peach or a Pineapple are in their highest Beauty, just at the Time that they fhould 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 fhould 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 As to the Quantity of Beauty, in particular Persons, I have sometimes had a Thought, which may serve (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 should think, that a Scale might be settled 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 highest Excellence in Color, at Ten; in Shape, at Twenty; in Expreffion, at Thirty; and in Grace, at Forty. So that the greatest Excellence of Beauty, at the highest Reckoning in each Part of it, would amount in all to One Hundred. There is probably no Inftance of the highest Excellence in all thefe Particulars, in any one Person. They who run very high in fome Articles, are often as deficient in others. If I was to state the Account, as to fome particular Ladies, who have been generally allowed to be very great Beauties, I fhould affign to Lady L. B * * *, Eight for Color, Four for Shape, Twenty-five for Expreffion, and Ten for Grace; in all, Forty-feven; not quite half-way in the complete Sum of Excellence:To Mrs. A***, Eight for Color, Seventeen for Shape, Fifteen for Expression, and Twenty for Grace; in all, Sixty Degrees of Excellence:-And to Mrs. B * * * Eight for Color, Ten for Shape, Twenty-five for Expreffion, and Thirty for Grace; in all, Seventy-three. And that is the higheft Sum, that I could in Con fcience fcience allow to any Woman that I have ever yet feen. Extreme Deformity fhould be rated, under each Article, at the fame Numbers as the highest Excellence; and, in mixt Beauties, Deductions should be made for them, in the fame Manner as the Additions are for the former. Thus, for Example, Mrs. M ***, for Color Six, Shape Fifteen; Expreffion Twenty, to be deducted; Grace Five; which will reduce her other Degrees of Excellence only to Six. Others would have no Share at all, in our préfent Subject; as falling, under each Article, to the Balance of Deformity. Thus Mrs. P * * bad Color Six, Shapé ditto Four, Expreffion of bad Paffions Twenty-five, Ungracefulness Ten; which together make Forty-five, all on the wrong Side of the Question. I do not pretend, in all this, to have made my Calculations exa&ly; but rather to point out to you, what might be done by fuch as are more exact Judges of Beauty than I can pretend to be. The best may be liable to fome little falfe Bias or other; but if their Calculations did not answer in every Point precifely to the Truth, they might at least come very near it. Thefe exact Judges indeed may not be fo frequently to be met with; for Judgment, as well as Beauty, is dealt out in very unequal Proportions to Mankind; and a very great Excellence in either, falls to the Lot of but a few. However, good Judgment is the more common of the Two; and, and, I believe, People in general are more capable of judging right of Beauty (at least, in some Parts of it) than they are of moft other Things. Yet there are a great many Causes, apt to miflead the Generality in their Judgments of Beauty; and I fhall beg leave to enumerate some of them. If the Affection is entirely engaged by any one Object, a Man is apt to allow all Perfections to that Perfon; and very little, in comparison, to any body elfe; or, if they ever commend others highly, it is for fome Circumstance in which they bear fome Refemblance to their favourite Object. People are very often misled in their Judg ments, by a Similitude either of their own Temper, or Perfonage, in others. It is hence, that a Perfon of a mild Temper is more apt to be pleased with the gentler Paffions in the Face of his Miftrefs; and one of a very lively Turn would choofe more of Spirit and Vivacity in his; that little People are inclined to prefer pretty Women, and larger People majestic ones; and so on, in a great Variety of Instances. This may be called falling in Love with ourfelves, at Second-hand; and Self-love (whatever other Love may be) is fometimes fo falfe-fighted, that it may make the most plain, and even the most disagreeable Things seem beautiful and pleasing. I remember, at the Tryal of the Scotch Lords a few Years ago in Westminster-ball, á Pair of apifh Lovers, that fat by each other; and gave no fmall Diverfion to a good Part of that large Company, Company, before the Lords made their Appearance. They were perpetually turning their Heads toward each other, a good deal in the fame Manner, and at the fame Time; fmiled together, grinned together, and laughed out together. All their Actions were pleasing to each other, though fo very displeasing to every body else. Sometimes an Idea of Ufefulness may give a Turn to our Ideas of Beauty; as the very fame Things are reckoned Beauties in a Coach-horse, which would be fo many Blemishes in a Racehorfe. I have often thought fome Ladies a little too. unguarded, as to this Particular. They seem to have the Polyphemus [1] Idea of Beauty; and talk [] When Ulyffes, after having put out that Cyclops's Eye, tells him his real Name and Character; the Monfter makes the following Exclamation : Ω τοποί, η μαλα δη με παλαιφαλα θεσφαθ' ἱκανει. Ος μοι εφη ταδε πανία τελευ]ησασθαι οπιστω Oh Heav'ns! Oh Faith of ancient Prophecies! Long fince he menac'd, fuch was Heav'n's Command; I deem'd fome godlike Giant to behold Pope's Tranflat. B. ix. ver. 603. as |