rd be,
in reality, gratitude, not self-love, yet a distinction, even of this
obvious nature, may not readily be made by superficial reasoners; and
there is room, at least, to support the cavil and dispute for a moment.
But as qualities, which tend only to the utility of their possessor,
without any reference to us, or to the community, are yet esteemed and
valued; by what theory or system can we account for this sentiment from
self-love, or deduce it from that favourite origin? There seems here a
necessity for confessing that the happiness and misery of others are not
spectacles entirely indifferent to us; but that the view of the former,
whether in its causes or effects, like sunshine or the prospect
of well-cultivated plains (to carry our pretensions no higher),
communicates a secret joy and satisfaction; the appearance of the
latter, like a lowering cloud or barren landscape, throws a melancholy
damp over the imagination. And this concession being once made, the
difficulty is over; and a natural unforced interpretation of the
phenomena of human life will afterwards, we may hope, prevail among all
speculative enquirers.

PART II.

It may not be improper, in this place, to examine the influence of
bodily endowments, and of the goods of fortune, over our sentiments of
regard and esteem, and to consider whether these phenomena fortify
or weaken the present theory. It will naturally be expected, that the
beauty of the body, as is supposed by all ancient moralists, will be
similar, in some respects, to that of the mind; and that every kind
of esteem, which is paid to a man, will have something similar in
its origin, whether it arise from his mental endowments, or from the
situation of his exterior circumstances.

It is evident, that one considerable source of BEAUTY in all animals
is the advantage which they reap from the particular structure of their
limbs and members, suitably to the particular manner of life, to which
they are by nature destined. The just proportions of a horse, described
by Xenophon and Virgil, are the same that are received at this day by
our modern jockeys; because the foundation of them is the same, namely,
experience of what is detrimental or useful in the animal.

Broad shoulders, a lank belly, firm joints, taper legs; all these are
beautiful in our species, because signs of force and vigour. Ideas of
utility and its contrary, though they do not entirely determine what is
handsome or