particular Construction for the Use intended! A Ship appears infinitely more beautiful to an Artist, or one moderately skill'd in Navigation; where its Prow is wide and swelling beyond its Poop, than if it were fram'd with a precise geometrical Regularity, in Contradiction to all the Laws of Mechanics. A Building, whose Doors and Windows were exact Squares, would hurt the Eye by that very Proportion; as ill adapted to the human Figure, for whose Service the Fabric was intended What Wonder then, that a Man, whose Habits and Conduct are hurtful to Society, and dangerous or pernicious to every one, that has an Intercourse with him, should, on that Account, be an Object of Disapprobation, and communicate to every Spectator the strongest Sentiments of Disgust and Hatred[1]?
But
- ↑ We ought not to imagine, because an inanimate Object may be useful as well as a Man, that therefore it ought also, according to this System, to merit the Appellation of virtuous. The Sentiments, excited by Utility, are, in the two Cases, very different; and the one is mixt with Affection, Esteem, Approbation, &c, and not the other. In like Manner, an inanimate Object may have good Colour and Proportions as well as a human Figure. But can we ever be in Love with the former? There are a numerous Set of Passions and Sentiments, of which thinking rational Beings are, by the original Constitution of Nature, the only proper Objects: And tho' the very same Qualities be transferr'd to an insensible, inanimate Being, they will not excite
the
