The Theory of Moral Sentiments; To Which Is Added a Dissertation on the Origin of Languages

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1767. Excerpt: ... PART IV. Os the Effect of Utility upon the sentiment of approbation. Consisting of one Section. CHAP. I, Of the beauty which the appearance of Jr Ility bestows upon all the productions of art, and of the extenjhe influence of this species of beauty. THAT utility Is one of the principal sources of beauty has been observed by every body, who has considered with any attention what constitutes the nature of beauty. The conveniency of a house gives pleasure to the spectator as well as its regularity, and he is as much hurt when he observes the contrary defect, as when he fees the correspondent windows of different forms, or the door not placed exactly in the middle of the building. That the fitness of any system or machine to produce the end for which it was intended, bestows a certain propriety and beauty upon the whole, and renders the very S 4 thought thought and contemplation of it agreeable, is so very obvious that nobody has overlooked it. / The cause too, why utility pleases, has of late been assigned by an ingenious and agreeable philosopher, who joins the greatest depth of thought to the greatest elegance of expreflion, and possesses the singular and happy talent of treating the abstrusest subjects not only with the most perfect perspicuity, but with the most lively eloquence. The utility of any object, according to him, pleases the master by perpetually suggesting to him the pleasure or conveniency which it is fitted to promote. Every time he looks at it, he is put in mind of this pleasure; and the object in this manner becomes a source of perpetual satisfaction and enjoyment. The spectator enters by sympathy into the sentiments of the master, and necessarily views the object under the fame agreeable aspect. When we visit the palaces of the great, we cannot help conceiving the ...