mind; so if
by any means the passion should first have its origin in the mind, a
relaxation of the outward organs will as certainly ensue in a degree
proportioned to the cause.

SECTION XX.

WHY SMOOTHNESS IS BEAUTIFUL.

It is to explain the true cause of visual beauty that I call in the
assistance of the other senses. If it appears that _smoothness_ is a
principal cause of pleasure to the touch, taste, smell, and hearing, it
will be easily admitted a constituent of visual beauty; especially as we
have before shown, that this quality is found almost without exception
in all bodies that are by general consent held beautiful. There can be
no doubt that bodies which are rough and angular, rouse and vellicate
the organs of feeling, causing a sense of pain, which consists in the
violent tension or contraction of the muscular fibres. On the contrary,
the application of smooth bodies relaxes; gentle stroking with a smooth
hand allays violent pains and cramps, and relaxes the suffering parts
from their unnatural tension; and it has therefore very often no mean
effect in removing swellings and obstructions. The sense of feeling is
highly gratified with smooth bodies. A bed smoothly laid, and soft, that
is, where the resistance is every way inconsiderable, is a great luxury,
disposing to an universal relaxation, and inducing beyond anything else
that species of it called sleep.

SECTION XXI.

SWEETNESS, ITS NATURE.

Nor is it only in the touch that smooth bodies cause positive pleasure
by relaxation. In the smell and taste, we find all things agreeable to
them, and which are commonly called sweet, to be of a smooth nature, and
that they all evidently tend to relax their respective sensories. Let us
first consider the taste. Since it is most easy to inquire into the
property of liquids, and since all things seem to want a fluid vehicle
to make them tasted at all, I intend rather to consider the liquid than
the solid parts of our food. The vehicles of all tastes are _water_ and
_oil_. And what determines the taste is some salt, which affects
variously according to its nature, or its manner of being combined with
other things. Water and oil, simply considered, are capable of giving
some pleasure to the taste. Water, when simple, is insipid, inodorous,
colorless, and smooth; it is found, when _not cold_, to be a great
resolver of spasms, and lubricator of the fibres; this power it probably
owes to its smoothness. For as