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SECT. XVIII.

THE EFFECTS OF BLACKNESS MODERATED.

THOUGH the effects of black be painful origi nally, we must not think they always continue fo. Custom reconciles us to every thing. After we have been used to the fight of black objects, the terrour abates, and the smoothness and gloffinefs or fome agreeable accident of bodies fo coloured, softens in fome measure the horrour and fternness of their original nature; yet the nature of their original impreffion ftill continues. Black will always have something melancholy in it, because the fenfory will always find the change to it from other colours too violent; or if it occupy the whole compafs of the fight, it will then be darkness; and what was faid of darknefs will be applicable here. I do not purpose to go into all that might be faid to illustrate this theory of the effects of light and darkness; neither will I exa, mine all the different effects produced by the va rious modifications and mixtures of these two caufes. If the foregoing obfervations have any foundation in nature, I conceive them very fufficient to account for all the phænomena that can arife from all the combinations of black with other colours. To enter into every particular, or to anfwer every objection, would be an endless labour,

We

We have only followed the moft leading roads; and we shall obferve the fame conduct in our inquiry into the cause of beauty.

SECT. XIX.

THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF LOVE.

WHEN we have before us fuch objects as excite love and complacency; the body is affected, fo far as I could obferve, much in the following manner: The head reclines fomething on one fide; the eyelids are more clofed than ufual, and the eyes roll gently with an inclination to the object; the mouth is a little opened, and the breath drawn flowly, with now and then a low figh; the whole body is compofed, and the hands fall idly to the fides. All this is accompanied with an inward sense of melting and languor. These appearances are always proportioned to the degree of beauty in the object, and of sensibility in the observer. And this gradation from the highest pitch of beauty and fenfibility, even to the loweft of mediocrity and indifference, and their correfpondent effects, ought to be kept in view, elfe this defcription will feem exaggerated, which it certainly is not. But from this description it is almost impos fible not to conclude, that beauty acts by relaxing the folids of the whole fyftem. There are all the appearances of fuch a relaxation; and a relaxation fomewhat

fomewhat below the natural tone feems to me to be the cause of all pofitive pleasure. Who is a ftranger to that manner of expreffion fo common in all times and in all countries, of being foftened, relaxed, enervated, diffolved, melted away by pleasure? The univerfal voice of mankind, faithful to their feelings, concurs in affirming this uni. form and general effect: and although fome odd and particular inftance may perhaps be found, wherein there appears a confiderable degree of pofitive pleasure, without all the characters of relaxation, we must not therefore reject the conclufion we had drawn from a concurrence of many expe riments; but we muft ftill retain it, fubjoining the exceptions which may occur according to the judicious rule laid down by Sir Ifaac Newton in the third book of his Opticks. Our pofition will, I conceive, appear confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt, if we can fhew that fuch things as we have already obferved to be the genuine conftituents of beauty, have each of them, feparately taken, a natural tendency to relax the fibres. And if it must be allowed us, that the appearance of the human body, when all these conftituents are united together before the fenfory, further favours this opinion, we may venture, I believe, to conclude, that the paffion called love is produced by this relaxation. By the fame method of reafoning which we have used in the inquiry into

the

the caufes of the fublime, we may likewife conclude, that as a beautiful object prefented to the fenfe, by causing a relaxation in the body, produces the paffion of love in the mind; fo if by any means the paflion fhould first have its origin in the mind, a relaxation of the outward organs will as certainly enfue in a degree proportioned to the caufe.

SECT. XX.

WHY SMOOTHNESS IS BEAUTIFUL.

IT is to explain the true cause of visual beauty, that I call in the affiftance of the other fenfes. If it appears that Smoothness is a principal caufe of pleasure to the touch, taste, smell, and hearing, it will be easily admitted a conftituent of visual beauty; especially as we have before fhewn, that this quality is found almost without exception in all bodies that are by general confent held beautiful. There can be no doubt that bodies which are

rough and angular, roufe and vellicate the organs of feeling, caufing a fenfe of pain, which confifts in the violent tenfion or contraction of the mufcular fibres. On the contrary, the application of smooth bodies relaxes; gentle ftroking with a smooth hand allays violent pains and cramps, and relaxes the fuffering parts from their unnatural tenfion and it has therefore very often no mean effect in

removing

removing fwellings and obftructions. The fenfe of feeling is highly gratified with fmooth bodies. A bed smoothly laid, and foft, that is, where the resistance is every way inconfiderable, is a great luxury, difpofing to an univerfal relaxation, and inducing beyond any thing elfe, that fpecies of it called fleep.

SECT. XXI.

SWEETNESS, ITS NATURE.

NOR is it only in the touch, that smooth bodies cause positive pleasure by relaxation. In the fmell and tafte, we find all things agreeable to them, and which are commonly called fweet, to be of a fmooth nature, and that they all evidently tend to relax their respective sensories. Let us firft confider the taste. Since it is moft eafy to inquire into the property of liquids, and fince all things feem to want a fluid vehicle to make them tafted at all, I intend rather to confider the liquid than the folid parts of our food. The vehicles of all taftes are water and oil. And what determines the tafte is fome falt, which affects varioufly according to its nature, or its manner of being combined. with other things. Water and oil, fimply confidered, are capable of giving fome pleasure to the tafte. Water, when simple, is infipid, inodorous, colourless, and smooth; it is found, when not cold,

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