her good qualities to operate, without her making any stir about what has been done. The assertion that the individual female may be reformed by this restoration to favour, reminds me of the lines, Ye gods, annihilate both time and space, The chance of a relaxation of morals all over Christendom, is of more consequence than that of the perseverance of one person in an evil course, I do not doubt the very surprise to her, not to mention the flattery of pride, must have some effect; but the measure is not necessary to encourage general mercy: nor is it to discredit jealousy, that odious, but little prevalent passion; and therefore if no new, certain good result from bestirring ourselves, why should we be at the pains of doing so? Did we then approve of enlisting the passions into the service of virtue, as I have recommended, (and this is what we do in passing laws to encourage morality, which remove from them the incitements to outrage), there could be no objection to it on other accounts, in the present instance; and this would not be done without allowing weight to every popular prejudice that may occasion pain, as far as it is consistent with prudence and virtue. FOTECHUGLINESS. ndi له It is natural to confound this with deformity, as doum s they both commonly displease; and it is in the 2 course of things to reject what offends us, from mechanical causes, and establish a rule to prohibit it; a transgression of which then goes against the judgment, as well as the feelings. I should imagine Mr. Price had fallen into this error, in considering beauty as synonimous with the complete human form. He takes notice of the figurative sense of the Latin word forma, when it signifies beauty, as implying the identity he remarks between form and 1 • A new-made virtue, especially, cannot find the passions disciplined into respect. For instance, in looking upon the hero of this play, in one temper of mind, I may perceive his brows decorated with the laurels of his triumph; yet, in another I may, from the contagion of prejudice, by no means see them similarly adorned. Also, an old acknowledged virtue, when boasted of by its possessor, may, from its more manifest dignity, excite envy: but the virtue here represented, though its character be continually strengthened by new acquiescences, and new boasts of them, would produce rather less, than more, of that passion. beauty. But, as Burke observes, " beauty, may exist with any proportions:" and though we see in the Farnese Hercules, much less delicacy and gradual variation, than in the Apollo de Belvedere; less, in short, of that character which is the opposite to uglines, yet there is nearly or quite as much of fitness, 201 the character which is the opposite to deformity. If we happen in travelling to come up to a swamp, stretched out before us, of an ordinary size, we shall esteem it an ugly object; and its dingy colour, and want of soft variety, will prevent its affording us any pleasure; but it is still in the order of things, and does not shock us, by transgressing propriety. Should we, however, employ a landscape gardener to lay out our grounds, and were he to convert an undulating lawn before the house into such a swamp, by way of improving them, he would, by so doing, communicate to it deformity, as well as ugliness; because he would err against the rules adopted by people of his profession, and by which fitness excluded ugliness. The swamp in this case obviously would, and in the other would not, have in it what is faulty. For it is one thing for our passions not to be flattered, and another to be simply disapNote V. Appendix. pointed in what we expect. We shall be displeased with a perfect chair of an ugly shape and colour, while we experience no effect from one not remarkable, which wants a leg, Ugliness is full as little fertile in subjects of admiration, as deformity; and the good examples of this, as well as the other, must be due to particular circumstances. One is association.-Cowper, says, jay, the pƒe, and even the boding owl, The jay, That hails the rising moon, have charms for me. Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh, cri ri Yet heard in scenes where peace for ever reigns, And only there, please highly for their sake. A natural harshness, loudness, or lowness of the voice, a hesitation in the speech, too hurried motions, a teasing slowness and formality in doing business: all these are consistent with the observance of the rules society have judged adequate to the support of virtue and good manners. The imitative arts rely both on ugliness and deformity, since these exist in the world; but they ought to be tempered in composition with a sufficient infusion of sublimity and beauty. MEDIOCRITY. 1st Though ideas in themselves not sublime, or beautiful, or ugly, may be considered as having Mediocrity, their relation to the mind that receives them, and to its stock of knowledge, may give them the effect and importance of novelty. An able mathematician may, like Israel Lyons, be disappointed on reading Virgil, in finding that nothing is there proved; and yet, wanting the ideas of sensibility, he may so abound in those of mere judgment, and conversant about lines and angles, that he may infinitely extend the limits of science, and prove useful to his fellow creatures. For we should regard quantity more than quality of ideas, if we would encourage useful characters; and not prefer a secondary poet to an extraordinary person in any other line. Such poets have, I think, been systematically encouraged in Europe within these twenty years, that more people might assist in writing down. government; and taste has with this view been decried, that harshness and distortion of thought, which they must be equal to, might pass for sentiment and sublimity, which they might not. To establish this prejudice, the worst part of Longinus has been |