There is an agreeable sensation which accompanies whatever exercises the organs without weakening them. Order is Heaven's first law; and this confest, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest; More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence That such are happier, shocks all common sense. EXERCISE of the mind is as requisite as that of the body to preserve our existence. The senses of animals being more active than ours, are sufficient to direct them to whatever is agreeable to their nature, or to avoid whatever is opposite: but we are endued with a mind to supply the defect of our senses, and pleasure presents itself to animate the mind to a suitable exercise, and to keep it from falling into a state of destructive inaction. Pleasure, the nurse of diversion, is also the origin of arts and sciencés: the universe is compelled by our diligence to pay tribute to our wants; at the same time, we cannot help acknowledging our obligations to the law of Nature, which has united a degree of pleasure to whatever exercises the mind without fatiguing it. There have been men, and those called philosophers too, who have maintained, that the exercise of the mind is no vey to us a true sense, notwithstanding there may seem an inconsistency in the style. If we intend only to instruct, then our term cannot be too plain; but if our design is to please, we may then gratify the mind with an opportunity of exercising her susceptibility. The idea we wish to convey will acquire new excellencies, if, after the custom of Virgil's Shepherdess, there are some pains taken to conceal it, in order to give the greater pleasure when discovered. Order, proportion, and symmetry, are pleasing, because they make it easy for the mind to understand, and preserve the different parts of an object. Imitation by sounds, colours, gestures, or conversation, has the same superiority as symmetry or proportion: it presents objects to our sight, which the idea can with ease comprehend, by the similarity which is made with those already known to us. Contrast is no less easy to be understood by the idea than the similitude: it makes contrary objects to approach each other; it brings to light the characteristics of one, by comparing them with those of another. But if contrast and likeness have the same advantage, I ask whether they may be used impartially? No, certainly. Contrast is very successfully made use of in poems, pictures, and other works, wherein the parts are purposed to be seen in succession; but in those intended to be taken in at one view, proportion ought to prevail in all the suitable parts. The sight could not but be displeased at an inequality, the cause of which could not appear to the mind. All great architects, among the various proportions consistent with the chief design of their works, have always determined upon those which the mind could most easily comprehend. If not to some peculiar end assign'd, A chase for sport alone, and not for game. It is the same with the musician as with the architect: the beauties |