Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/33

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Book I.
of IMAGINATION.
19

In this dark world: for truth and good are one,
And beauty dwells in them[O 1], and they in her,375

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  1. ————Truth and good are one,
    And beauty dwells in them
    , &c.] Do you imagine, says Socrates to his libertine disciple that what is good is not also beautiful? have you not observ'd that these appearances always co-incide? Virtue, for instance, in the same respect as to which we call it good, is ever acknowledg'd to be beautiful also. In the characters of men we always[I 1] join the two denominations together. The beauty of human bodies corresponds, in like manner, with that oeconomy of parts which constitutes them good; and is, all the circumstances which occur in life, the same object is constantly accounted both beautiful and good, inasmuch as it answers the purposes for which it was design'd. Xenophont. memorab. Socrat. 1. 3. c. 8.
    This excellent observation has been illustrated and extended by the noble restorer of ancient philosophy; see the Characteristicks, vol. 2. p. 399. & 422. & vol. 3. p. 181. And his most ingenious disciple has particularly shewn, that it holds in the general laws of nature, in the works of art, and the conduct of the sciences. Inquiry into the original of our ideas of beauty and virtue; Treat. I. Sect. 8. As to the connection between beauty and truth, there are two opinions concerning it. Some philosophers assert an independent and invariable law in nature, in consequence of which all rational beings must alike perceive beauty in some certain proportions, and deformity in the contrary. And this necessity being supposed the same with that which commands the assent or dissent of the understanding, it follows of course that beauty is founded on the universal and unchangeable law of truth.
    But others there are who believe beauty to be merely a relative and arbitrary thing; that indeed it was a benevo-
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  1. This the Athenians did in a peculiar manner by the words καλοικαγαθοὶ & καλοκαγαθία.