The Real Cause of BeautyHAVING endeavoured to show what beauty is not, it remains that
we should examine, at least with equal attention, in what it really consists.
Beauty is a thing much too affecting not to depend upon some positive
qualities. And, since it is no creature of our reason, since it strikes
us without any reference to use, and even where no use at all can be
discerned, since the order and method of nature is generally very different
from our measures and proportions, we must conclude that beauty is,
for the greater part, some quality in bodies acting mechanically upon
the human mind by the intervention of the senses. We ought therefore
to consider attentively in what manner those sensible qualities are
disposed, in such things as by experience we find beautiful, or which
excite in us the passion of love, or some correspondent affection. |
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