The industry of man stops not even here, but prompts him to search for figures, not only in his intellect, but in a lower faculty. The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Shaksp. Mids. Night's Dream, act v. sc. 1. And hence that tribe of figures, which are neither natural, nor artificial, nor intellectual, but which make a fourth sort, that may be called fantastic, or imaginary; such as centaurs, satyrs, sphinxes, hydras, &c. And so much for figure, that most capital quality of all the superficial. The next quality of this sort after figure is colour, the source, like figure, of many varieties and distinctions. Yet that it is inferior to figure is obvious from this: in the sketches of a painter we know things by their figures alone, without their colours; but not by their colours alone, when divested of their figures. As for roughness, smoothness, hardness, softness, though they may be said, perhaps, to penetrate further than the surface, yet are they, to man's sensation at least, so many qualities superficial. And now with respect to all kinds of qualities, whether corporeal or incorporeal, there is one thing to be observed, that some degree of permanence is always requisite; else they are not so properly qualities, as incidental affections. Thus we call not a man passionate, because he has occasionally been angered, but because he is prone to frequent anger; nor do we say a man is of a pallid or a ruddy complexion, because he is red by immediate exercise, or pale by sudden fear, but when that paleness or redness may be called constitutional. 66 We have said already, that it was the essence of all qualities to characterize and distinguish. And hence the origin of that phrase, a person of quality;" that is to say, a person distinguished from the vulgar by his valour, his wisdom, or some other capital accomplishment. As these were the primary sources of those external honours paid to eminent men in precedences, titles, and various other privileges; it followed that these honours by degrees grew to represent the things honoured; so that as virtue These Aristotle calls Пdon. Ouтe yàp ὁ ἐρυθριῶν διὰ τὰ αἰσχύνεσθαι, ἐρυθρίας λέγεται, οὔτε ὁ ὠχριῶν διὰ τὸ φοβεῖσθαι, ὠχρίας· ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον πεπονθέναι τι· ὥστε πάθη μὲν τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγεται, ποιότητες δὲ o: "Neither is the man who blushes from being ashamed, called of a reddish com plexion; nor is he who turns pale from being frightened, called of a palish complexion, but they are rather said to have been particularly affected ; for which reason such events are called incidental affections, and not qualities." Arist. Præd. p. 43. edit. Sylb. led originally to rank, rank in after-days came to infer virtue; particular ranks, particular virtues: that of a prince, serenity; of an ambassador, excellence; of a duke, grace; of a pope, holiness; of a justice or mayor, worship, &c. &c. As to the general properties of quality, they may be found among the following. Contrariety appertains to it. Thus in the corporeal qualities, hot is contrary to cold, and black to white. So, too, in mental qualities, wisdom is contrary to folly, and virtue to vice: subordinate virtues to subordinate vices; liberality to avarice, courage to cowardice. Even vices themselves are contrary one to another; cowardice to temerity, avarice to profusion. It may be doubted, however, whether this character of quality be universal; for what among figures is there contrary in one figure to another, either in the square to the circle, or in the circle to the square? Another property of qualities is to admit of intension and remission. Thus of two persons handsome, there may be one the handsomer; and among many handsome, one the handsomest. Πασάων δ ̓ ὕπερ ἥγε κάρη ἔχει ἠδὲ μέτωπα, Hom. Odys. Z. 107. So sir John Falstaff, speaking to his companion, the young prince—“ I am not John a Gaunt, your grandfather; and yet I am no coward."l It appears, however, that the above-mentioned species of quality, called figure, no more admits this property than it did contrariety. The figures which are triangles, are not more so one than another; no more are the circles, circles; the squares, squares, &c. which seems, indeed, to arise from their definitude and precision." But there is a property to be found which may justly deserve the name, by being common at least to the whole genus, if not peculiar to that only and this property is, that by virtue of their qualities things are denominated like and unlike." "It is thus that the swan by his quality of whiteness resembles the snow; that Achilles by his quality of fierceness resembles a mastiff; and that the earth by her quality of figure is like to a bowl. From this property we see the reason why there is no arrangement to which the poets are so much indebted as to this; since hence they derive those innumerable images which so strongly distinguish poetry from every other species of writing. For example: let us suppose a young hero just slain; let us j Ὑπάρχει δὲ ἐναντιότης κατὰ τὸ ποιὸν, K. T. A. Arist. Præd. p. 44. edit. Sylb. κ Ἐπιδέχεται δὲ τὸ μᾶλλον καὶ τὸ ἧττον τὰ ποιά· κ. τ. λ. Arist. Præd. p. 45. edit. Sylb. 1 Shaksp. Hen. IV. m See Hermes, p. 175. η Ομοια δὲ ἢ ἀνόμοια κατά μόνας τὰς ποιότητας λέγεται· ὅμοιον γὰρ ἕτερον ἑτέρῳ οὐκ ἐστι κατ ̓ ἄλλο οὐδὲν, ἢ καθ ̓ ὁ ποιόν OTI. Arist. Præd. p. 45. edit. Sylb. suppose him lying, with a drooping head, a face divested of life and bloom, yet still retaining traces both of beauty and of youth. The poet would illustrate this pathetic image by finding something that resembles it. And where is he to search, but where he can discover similar qualities? He finds at length an assemblage of them in a flower just gathered: the same drooping head, the same lifeless fade, the same relicts of a form that was once fair and flourishing. Thus then Virgil, speaking of young Pallas: Qualem virgineo demessum pollice florem Æn. xi. 68. Again, what would Milton have us conceive, when he describes the tremendous shield of Satan? Those conspicuous characters of brightness, vastness, and rotundity. To what subject then ought he to refer, that we may comprehend what he would describe? It must be to one that eminently possesses an assemblage of the same qualities. Let the poet, in his own words, inform us what this subject is: The broad circumference Hung on his shoulders, like the moon. Par. Lost, i. 286. To The reason of this property may be, perhaps, as follows. be like is something less than to be perfectly the same, and something more than to be perfectly different. And hence it is, that when two things are called like, there is implied in their nature something of sameness, and something of diversity. If it be asked what the sameness is; we answer, it must be something more definitive than those transcendental samenesses which run through all things. We say not that a piece of ebony is like a swan, because they both are; or that a crow resembles a snowball, because each of them is one, and not two. The identity must be sought from among the number of those qualities, the nature of which is less extensive, and more confined to particular species. Let blackness, for example, be a quality of this character in that union of qualities which constitutes ebony; and let the same quality be one also in that union which constitutes a crow. So far, then, the ebony and the crow are the same; through every other quality perhaps they are different; and through sameness, thus tempered by diversity, they become, and are called like." The same happens to the earth and a bowl, from their common rotundity; to the hero and the mastiff, from their common ferocity. And so much for the second universal genus, arrangement, or predicament, the genus of quality, its various species, and its different properties. • See note h, p. 275, and note v, p. 305. CHAPTER IX. CONCERNING QUANTITY-ITS TWO SPECIES-THEIR CHARACTERS. TIME COM THE attribute of substance, standing in arrangement next to quality, is quantity; the former having precedence, as being supposed more universal; while the latter, at least in appearance, seems not to extend beyond body. Out of natural bodies is the visible world composed, and we may contemplate them in different manners; either one body, taken by itself and alone; or many bodies, taken collectively and at once. When Virgil says of the oak, Quantum vertice ad auras Ætherias, tantum radice ad Tartara tendit; Geor. ii. 291. or when Milton informs us, that Behemoth, biggest born of earth, unheaved Par. Lost, vii. 471. in these instances we have only one body, taken by itself and alone, and this naturally suggests the idea of magnitude. But when in Virgil we read, Quam multa in sylvis autumni frigore primo or when in Milton, Thick as autumnal leaves, that strew the brooks In Vallombrosa; Æn. vi. 309. Par. Lost, i. 302. in these instances we have many bodies taken collectively and at once, and this naturally suggests the idea of multitude. Horace gives the two species together in his fine address to Augustus: Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia. Horat. Epist. 1. ii. l. Now in magnitude and multitude we behold these two primary, these two grand and comprehensive species, into which the genus of quantity is divided; magnitude, from its union, being called quantity continuous; multitude, from its separation, quantity discrete.P - Τοῦ δὲ ποσοῦ τὸ μέν ἐστι διωρισμένον, τὸ δὲ συνεχές. Aristot. Praed. Sylb. 30. edit. Of the continuous kind is every solid; also the bound of every solid, that is, a superficies; and the bound of every superficies, that is, a line; to which may be added those two concomitants of every body, namely, time and place. Of the discrete kind are fleets, armies, herds, flocks, the syllables of sounds articulate, &c. We have mentioned formerly, when we treated of time, that every now or present instant was a boundary or term at which the past ended and the future began; and that it was in the perpetuity of this connection that time became continuous. In like manner within every line may be assumed infinite such connectives, under the character of points; and within every superficies, under the character of lines; and within every solid, under the character of superficies; to which connectives these quantities owe their continuity. And hence a specific distinction, attending all quantities continuous, that their several parts everywhere coincide in a common boundary or connective. It is not so with quantities discrete; for here such coincidents is plainly impossible. Let us suppose, for example, a multitude of squares, x, y, z. &c. Here if the line AB, where the square x ends, were the same with the line CD, where the square y begins, and EF in like manner the same with GH, they would no longer be a multitude of squares, but one continuous parallelogram; such as Another specific character belonging to the solid body, the superficies, and the line, (all of which are quantities continuous,) is, that their parts have a definite position within some definite whole; while in quantities discrete, that is in multitudes, such position is no way requisite. In the most perfect continuous quantities, such as beams of timber, blocks of marble, &c. it is with difficulty the parts can change position, without destruction to the quantity, taken as continuous. But a herd of cattle, or an army of soldiers, may change position as often as they please, and no damage arise to the multitude, considered as a multitude. It must be remembered, however, that this character of po 4 See Hermes, lib. i. c. 7. p. 146. See Arist. Prædic. p. 31. edit. Sylb. Ἡ δὲ γραμμὴ συνεχής ἐστιν, κ.τ.λ. This character is described to be πρός τινα κοινὸν ὅρον συνάπτειν. Ibid. • Ετι, τὰ μὲν ἐκ θέσιν ἐχόντων πρὸς Anλa тŵv ev avтoîs μopiwv ovvéoτnke οἷον τὰ μὲν τῆς γραμμῆς μόρια θέσιν ἔχει πρὸς ἄλληλα, κ. τ. λ. Arist, Præd. p. 31. edit. Sylb. |