m us, and
where the weakness of age mellows it into something of a feminine
partiality.

SECTION XI.

HOW FAR THE IDEA OF BEAUTY MAY BE APPLIED TO VIRTUE.

From what has been said in the foregoing section, we may easily see how
far the application of beauty to virtue may be made with propriety. The
general application of this quality to virtue has a strong tendency to
confound our ideas of things, and it has given rise to an infinite deal
of whimsical theory; as the affixing the name of beauty to proportion,
congruity, and perfection, as well as to qualities of things yet more
remote from our natural ideas of it, and from one another, has tended to
confound our ideas of beauty, and left us no standard or rule to judge
by, that was not even more uncertain and fallacious than our own
fancies. This loose and inaccurate manner of speaking has therefore
misled us both in the theory of taste and of morals; and induced us to
remove the science of our duties from their proper basis (our reason,
our relations, and our necessities), to rest it upon, foundations
altogether visionary and unsubstantial.

SECTION XII.

THE REAL CAUSE OF BEAUTY.

Having endeavored to show what beauty is not, it remains that we should
examine, at least with equal attention, in what it really consists.
Beauty is a thing much too affecting not to depend upon some positive
qualities. And since it is no creature of our reason, since it strikes
us without any reference to use, and even where no use at all can be
discerned, since the order and method of nature is generally very
different from our measures and proportions, we must conclude that
beauty is, for the greater part, some quality in bodies acting
mechanically upon the human mind by the intervention of the senses. We
ought, therefore, to consider attentively in what manner those sensible
qualities are disposed, in such things as by experience we find
beautiful, or which excite in us the passion of love, or some
correspondent affection.

SECTION XIII.

BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS SMALL.

The most obvious point that presents itself to us in examining any
object is its extent or quantity. And what degree of extent prevails in
bodies that are held beautiful, may be gathered from the usual manner of
expression concerning it. I am told that, in most languages, the objects
of love are spoken of under diminutive epithets. It is so in all the
languages of which I have any knowledge. In Greek the [Gre