of insipidity, but
if not of the one, then not of the other. So that, in speaking of the
goodness of God, it cannot be that we mean anything more than his Love,
Mercifulness, and Justice, and these attributes I have shown to be
expressed by other qualities of beauty, and I cannot trace any rational
connection between them and the idea of spotlessness in matter. Neither
can I trace any more distinct relation between this idea, and any of the
virtues which make up the righteousness of man, except perhaps those of
truth and openness, of which I have already spoken as more expressed by
the transparency than the mere purity of matter. So that I conceive the
whole use of the terms purity, spotlessness, etc., in moral subjects, to
be merely metaphorical, and that it is rather that we illustrate these
virtues by the desirableness of material purity, than that we desire
material purity because it is illustrative of these virtues.

Sec. 7. Energy, how expressed by purity of matter.

I repeat, then, that the only idea which I think can be legitimately
connected with purity of matter, is this of vital and energetic
connection among its particles, and that the idea of foulness is
essentially connected with dissolution and death. Thus the purity of the
rock, contrasted with the foulness of dust or mould, is expressed by the
epithet "living," very singularly given in the rock, in almost all
languages; singularly I say, because life is almost the last attribute
one would ascribe to stone, but for this visible energy and connection
of its particles: and so of water as opposed to stagnancy. And I do not
think that, however pure a powder or dust may be, the idea of beauty is
ever connected with it, for it is not the mere purity, but the _active_
condition of the substance which is desired, so that as soon as it
shoots into crystals, or gathers into efflorescence, a sensation of
_active_ or real purity is received which was not felt in the calcined
caput mortuum.

Sec. 8. And of color.

Sec. 9. Spirituality, how so expressed.

And again in color. I imagine that the quality of it which we term
purity is dependent on the full energizing of the rays that compose it,
whereof if in compound hues any are overpowered and killed by the rest,
so as to be of no value nor operation, foulness is the consequence;
while so long as all act together, whether side by side, or from
pigments seen one through the other, so that all the coloring matt