the causes of the fublime, we may likewife conclude, that as a beautiful object presented to the fenfe, by caufing a relaxation in the body, produces the paffion of love in the mind; fo if by any means the paffion should first have its origin in the mind, a relaxation of the outward organs will as certainly enfue in a degree proportioned to the cause.

SECT. XX.

WHY SMOOTHNESS IS BEAUTIFUL.

If

IT is to explain the true cause of visual beauty, that I call in the affiftance of the other fenfes. it appears that Smoothness is a principal cause of pleasure to the touch, tafte, fmell, and hearing, it will be easily admitted a constituent of visual beauty; especially as we have before fhewn, that this quality is found almoft without exception in all bodies that are by general confent held beautiful. There can be no doubt that bodies which are rough and angular, roufe and vellicate the organs of feeling, caufing a fenfe of pain, which confifts in the violent tenfion or contraction of the mufcular fibres. On the contrary, the application of smooth bodies relaxes; gentle ftroking with a smooth hand allays violent pains and cramps, and relaxes the fuffering parts from their unnatural tenfion; and it has therefore very often no mean effect in

removing

removing fwellings and obftructions. The fenfe of feeling is highly gratified with fmooth bodies. A bed fmoothly laid, and foft, that is, where the resistance is every way inconsiderable, is a great luxury, difpofing to an univerfal relaxation, and inducing beyond any thing else, that fpecies of it called fleep.

SECT. XXI.

SWEETNESS, ITS NATURE.

NOR is it only in the touch, that smooth bodies caufe pofitive pleasure by relaxation. In the fmell and tafte, we find all things agreeable to them, and which are commonly called fweet, to be of a fimooth nature, and that they all evidently tend to relax their respective fenfories. Let us firft confider the tafte. Since it is moft eafy to inquire into the property of liquids, and fince all things feem to want a fluid vehicle to make them tasted at all, I intend rather to confider the liquid than the folid parts of our food. The vehicles of all taftes are water and oil. And what determines the tafte is fome falt, which affects varioufly according to its nature, or its manner of being combined with other things. Water and oil, fimply confidered, are capable of giving fome pleasure to the tafte. Water, when fimple, is infipid, inodorous, colourless, and fmooth; it is found, when not cold,

to

to be a great refolver of fpafmns, and lubricator of the fibres; this power it probably owes to its fmoothness. For as its fluidity depends, according to the most general opinion, on the roundnefs, fmoothnefs, and weak cohesion of the component parts of any body; and as water acts merely as a fimple fluid; it follows, that the caufe of its fluidity is likewise the cause of its relaxing quality; namely, the smoothness and flippery texture of its parts. The other fluid vehicle of taftes is oil. This too, when fimple, is infipid, inodorous, colourless, and smooth to the touch and taste. It is smoother than water, and in many cafes yet more relaxing. Oil is in fome degree pleasant to the eye, the touch, and the taste, infipid as it is. Water is not fo grateful; which I do not know on what principle to account for, other than that water is not fo foft and fmooth. Suppofe that to this oil or water were added a certain quantity of a fpecifick falt, which had a power of putting the nervous papillæ of the tongue into a gentle vibra tory motion; as fuppofe fugar diffolved in it. The fmoothness of the oil, and the vibratory power of the falt, cause the sense we call sweetness all fweet bodies, fugar, or a fubftance very little different from fugar, is conftantly found, every fpecies of falt, examined by the microscope, has its own diftinct, regular, invariable form. That of nitre is a pointed oblong; that of fea-falt an exact VOL. I. U cube;

In

cube; that of fugar a perfect globe. If you have tried how smooth globular bodies, as the marbles with which boys amufe themselves, have affected the touch when they are rolled backward and forward and over one another, you will easily conceive how sweetness, which confists in a falt of fuch nature, affects the tafte; for a fingle globe, (though fomewhat pleafant to the feeling) yet by the regularity of its form, and the fomewhat too fudden deviation of its parts from a right line, is nothing near so pleasant to the touch as feveral globes, where the hand gently rises to one and falls to another; and this pleasure is greatly increased if the globes are in motion, and fliding over one another; for this foft variety prevents that weariness, which the uniform difpofition of the feveral globes would otherwise produce. Thus in fweet liquors, the parts of the fluid vehicle, though moft probably round, are yet fo minute, as to conceal the figure of their component parts from the niceft inquifition of the microscope; and confequently being fo exceffively minute, they have a fort of flat fimplicity to the taste, resembling the effects of plain fmooth bodies to the touch; for if a body be compofed of round parts exceffively fmall, and packed pretty closely together, the furface will be both to the fight and touch as if it were nearly plain and fmooth. It is clear from their unveiling their figure to the microscope, that the particles of fugar

are

are confiderably larger than those of water or oil, and confequently, that their effects from their roundnefs will be more diftinct and palpable to the nervous papillæ of that nice organ the tongue: they will induce that fenfe called sweetness, which in a weak manner we discover in oil, and in a yet weaker in water; for, infipid as they are, water and oil are in fome degree sweet; and it may be obferved, that infipid things of all kinds approach more nearly to the nature of sweetness than to that of any other taste.

SECT. XXII.

SWEETNESS RELAXING.

IN the other fenfes we have remarked, that fmooth things are relaxing. Now it ought to appear that fweet things, which are the smooth of tafte, are relaxing too. It is remarkable, that in fome languages foft and fweet have but one name. Doux in French fignifies soft as well as sweet. The Latin Dulcis, and the Italian Dolce, have in many cafes the fame double fignification. That fweet things are generally relaxing, is evident; because all fuch, especially those which are most oily, taken frequently, or in a large quantity, very much enfeeble the tone of the ftomach. Sweet fmells, which bear a great affinity to fweet tastes, relax very remarkably. The fmell of flowers difpofes people

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