to be a great refolver of spasms, and lubricator of the fibres; this power it probably owes to its fmoothnefs. For as its fluidity depends, according to the most general opinion, on the roundnefs, fmoothness, and weak cohesion of the com. ponent parts of any body; and as water acts merely as a fimple fluid; it follows, that the caufe of its fluidity is likewife the cause of its relaxing quality; namely, the smoothness and flippery texture of its parts. The other fluid vehicle of taftes is oil. This too, when simple, is infipid, inodorous, colourless, and fmooth to the touch and taste. It is fmoother than water, and in many cafes yet more relaxing. Oil is in fome degree pleasant to the eye, the touch, and the taste, infipid as it is. Water is not fo grateful; which I do not know on what principle to account for, other than that water is not so soft and smooth. Suppose that to this oil or water were added a certain quantity of a specifick falt, which had a power of putting the nervous papillæ of the tongue into a gentle vibratory motion; as suppose sugar diffolved in it. The fmoothness of the oil, and the vibratory power of the falt, cause the fenfe we call fweetness In all sweet bodies, fugar, or a substance very little different from fugar, is conftantly found; every species of falt, examined by the microscope, has its own diftinct, regular, invariable form. That of nitre is a pointed oblong; that of fea-falt an exact VOL. I. cube;

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cube; that of sugar a perfect globe. If you have tried how fmooth globular bodies, as the marbles with which boys amuse themselves, have affected the touch when they are rolled backward and forward and over one another, you will easily conceive how sweetness, which consists in a falt of fuch nature, affects the taste; for a fingle globe, (though fomewhat pleasant to the feeling) yet by the regularity of its form, and the fomewhat too fudden deviation of its parts from a right line, is nothing near so pleasant to the touch as feveral globes, where the hand gently rises to one and falls to another; and this pleasure is greatly increased if the globes are in motion, and fliding over one another; for this foft variety prevents that weariness, which the uniform disposition of the several globes would otherwise produce. Thus in sweet liquors, the parts of the fluid vehicle, though most probably round, are yet so minute, as to conceal the figure of their component parts from the nicest inquisition of the microscope; and confequently being fo excessively minute, they have a fort of flat fimplicity to the taste, resembling the effects of plain smooth bodies to the touch; for if a body be composed of round parts excessively small, and packed pretty closely together, the surface will be both to the fight and touch as if it were nearly plain and smooth. It is clear from their unveiling their figure to the microscope, that the particles of fugar

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are confiderably larger than those of water or oil, and confequently, that their effects from their roundness will be more diftinct and palpable to the nervous papillæ of that nice organ the tongue: they will induce that sense called sweetness, which in a weak manner we discover in oil, and in a yet weaker in water; for, infipid as they are, water and oil are in some degree sweet; and it may be observed, that infipid things of all kinds approach more nearly to the nature of sweetness than to that of any other tafte.

SECT. ΧΧΙΙ.

SWEETNESS RELAXING.

IN the other senses we have remarked, that smooth things are relaxing. Now it ought to appear that sweet things, which are the smooth of taste, are relaxing too. It is remarkable, that in some languages soft and sweet have but one name. Doux in French fignifies soft as well as fweet. The Latin Dulcis, and the Italian Dolce, have in many cafes the fame double fignification. That sweet things are generally relaxing, is evident; because all fuch, especially those which are most oily, taken frequently, or in a large quantity, very much enfeeble the tone of the stomach. Sweet smells, which bear a great affinity to sweet tastes, relax very remarkably. The smell of flowers difpofes people

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people to drowsiness; and this relaxing effect is further apparent from the prejudice which people of weak nerves receive from their use. It were worth while to examine, whether tastes of this kind, sweet ones, tastes that are caused by smooth oils and a relaxing falt, are not the originally pleasant taftes. For many, which use has rendered such, were not at all agreeable at first. The way to examine this is, to try what nature has originally provided for us, which she has undoubtedly made originally pleasant; and to analyse this provision. Milk is the first support of our childhood. The component parts of this are water, oil, and a fort of a very fweet falt, called the fugar of milk. All these when blended have a great Smoothness to the taste, and a relaxing quality to the skin. The next thing children covet is fruit, and of fruits those principally which are sweet; and every one knows that the sweetness of fruit is caused by a fubtile oil, and fuch falt as that mentioned in the last section. Afterwards, custom, habit, the defire of novelty, and a thousand other caufes, confound, adulterate, and change our palates, so that we can no longer reason with any fatisfaction about them. Before we quit this article, we must obferve, that as fmooth things are, as fuch, agreeable to the tafte, and are found of a relaxing quality; fo, on the other hand, things which are found by experience to be of a strength

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ening quality, and fit to brace the fibres, are al most universally rough and pungent to the tafte, and in many cafes rough even to the touch. We often apply the quality of sweetness, metaphorically, to visual objects. For the better carrying on this remarkable analogy of the senses, we may here call sweetness the beautiful of the taste,

SECT. XXIII.

VARIATION, WHY BEAUTIFUL,

ANOTHER principal property of beautiful ob jects is, that the line of their parts is continually varying its direction; but it varies it by a very insensible deviation; it never varies it so quickly as to surprise, or by the sharpness of its angle to cause any twitching or convulfion of the optick nerve. Nothing long continued in the fame manner, nothing very fuddenly varied, can be beautiful; because both are opposite to that agreeable relaxation which is the characteristick effect of beauty. It is thus in all the fenfes. A motion in a right line, is that manner of moving next to a very gentle defcent, in which we meet the least resistance; yet it is not that manner of moving, which, next to a defcent, wearies us the leaft. Reft certainly tends to relax: yet there is a species of motion which relaxes more than reft; a gentle of

cillatory motion, a rifing and falling. Rocking fets

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