may be bleft in his Coquette; the common Soldier can delight himself with his Gin-drinking Trull; and the Captain with his military Mistress.

This increafes the Extent of Beauty vaftly, and makes it in a Manner univerfal; for there are but few People, in comparison, that are truly beautiful; but every body may be beautiful in the Imagination of fome one or other. As I have faid before, fome may delight themselves in a black Skin, and others in a white; fome in a gentle natural Rofinefs of Complexion, others in a high, exalted, artificial Red; fome Nations, in Waists difproportionably large; and another, in Waists as difproportionably small. In short, the most oppofite Things imaginable may each be looked upon as beautiful, in whole different Countries; or by different People, in the fame Country.

I fhould be apt to make a Distinction here again, as to the Two former Parts of Beauty, and the Two latter. Fancy has much more to do in the Articles of Form and Color, than in thofe of the Paffions and Grace. The good Paffions, as they are vifible on the Face, are apparent Goodness, and that must be generally amiable; and true Grace, wherever it appears to any De

I fhould think, must be pleafing to every human Creature; or, perhaps, this may never appear in the Women of any Nation, where the Men are grown fo favage and brutal, as to have loft all Tafte for it.

Yet, even as to Grace itself, under the Notion of Pleafingnefs (as I was just now calling it,) it

may

may become almoft univerfal; and be as fubject to the Dominion of Fancy, as any of the less fignificant Parts of Beauty. A Parent can fee Genteelnefs, 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 moft diftin-guishing Character that belongs to Grace. "Tis true, this is all a mistaken Grace; but, as to that particular Perfon, it has all the Effects of the

true.

Since I have fpoken of this Extent and Univerfality of fuppofed Beauty, it would be very ungrateful not to fay fomething of the real Beauty of the other Works of Nature; which feem to reach every-where, 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 fee 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 fpreading Lakes; or terminating, perhaps, on a View of the Sea, 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

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the

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 studded with living Lights, or gilded by the more folemn Beauties of the Moon; most pleafing in her infant Shape, and most majestic, when in her full Orb. I know not how it may be with others, but to me the very Lightnings are pleafing, when struggling amidst the fhaded 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 diffufe Pleasure to thofe of other Species, or at leaft 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 Drefs 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 feveral Sorts of Horfes? How beautiful is the Expreffion of 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 Chinese Pheafant; or the acquired ones, of a ma

naged

naged Horse. And I the rather take Part of the Beauty of all these 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 beft) lefs agreeable to us.

And as the Beauty of one Species of Animals may be fo defigned and adapted, as to give Pleasure 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 System of Worlds to another; and may end in one great univerfal Beauty, of all created Matter taken in one View. How far this may hold, we are, as yet, incapable even of forming any Guess; but fome late Difcoveries have fhewn, that there is a furprifing Symmetry and Proportion in the Sizes and Disposition of the feveral Worlds in our 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 System and another: At least, all that we know of thefe Worlds, are exactly proportioned; and all that we see of them, is beautiful. Thus fuch of them as come within our View, make what we call a fine ftarry Heaven; and as they compofe that beautiful Object to us, fo does our Syftem make a Part in feveral of their Profpects; and may be, in the great Compofition of the Univerfe, 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

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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 ena moured of her: And it feems as if the Greeks and Romans in general had had this Idea of her Beauty, because the Goddess 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 reprefented with the greatest and most commanding Beauty. The fame appears yet ftronger from their ufing' the Words Good [2] and Beautiful indifferently for each other; as if all Beauty was contained in Goodness.

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

The highest Object of Beauty that we can fee is the Goodness of God, as displayed 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 Emanations 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 Comparison of any one of these good becoming Deeds. How many more Charms are there, for

[n] Kador, Пgewor, Pulchrum, Honestum.

Inftance,