that nothing can be graceful, that is not adapted to the Characters of the Perfon.

The Graces of a little lively Beauty would become ungraceful in a Character of Majesty; as the majestic Airs of an Empress would quite destroy the Prettiness of the former. The Vivacity that adds a Grace to Beauty in Youth, would give an additional Deformity to old Age; and the very fame Airs, which would be charming on fome Occafions, may be quite fhocking when extremely mis-timed, or extremely mis-placed.

This infeparable Union of Propriety and Grace seems to have been the general Senfe of Mankind; as we may guess from the [g] Languages of feveral Nations; in which fome Words that answer to our Proper or Becoming, are used indifferently for Beautiful or Graceful.

And yet I cannot think (as fome feem inclined to do) that Grace confists entirely in Propriety; because Propriety is a Thing eafy enough to be underftood, and Grace (after all we can say about it) very difficult. Propriety therefore and Grace are no more one and the fame Thing, than Grace and Motion are: 'Tis true, it cannot fubfift without either; but then there seems to be fomething else, what I cannot explain, and what I do not know that ever any body has explained, that goes to the Compofition; and

[g] Thus, among the Greeks, the Words Пgeπov and Kaλov, and among the Romans, Pulchrum and Decens, or Decorum, are used indifferently for one another.

D 3

which

which poffibly may give its greatest Force and Plea fingness.

I may love a little

Whatever are the Causes of it, this is certain, that Grace is the chief of all the constituent Parts of Beauty; and fo much fo, that it seems to be the only one which is abfolutely and univerfally admired: All the reft are only relative. One likes a brunette Beauty better than a fair one; Woman, and you a large one, beft; a Perfon of a mild Temper will be fond of the gentler Paffions in the Face, and one of a bolder Caft may choose to have more Vivacity and more vigorous Paffions expreffed there: But Grace is found in few, and is pleafing to all.

Grace, like Poetry, must be born with a Perfon; and is never, wholly, to be acquired by Art.

The most celebrated of all the ancient Painters, was Apelles; and the moft celebrated of all the Modern, Raphael: And it is remarkable, that the diftinguishing Character of each of them was Grace. In, deed, that alone could have given them fo high a Preeminence over all their other Competitors.

Grace has nothing to do with the lowest Part of Beauty, or Color; very little with Shape, and very much with the Paffions; for it is the who gives their highest Zeft, and the moft delicious Part of their Pleafingness to the Expreffions of each of them.

All

All the other Parts of Beauty are pleasing in some Degree, but Grace is Pleafingness itfelf; and the old Romans in general feem to have had this Notion of it ; as may be inferred from the original Import [6] of the Names which they used for this Part of Beauty.

The Greeks, as well as the Romans, must have been of this Opinion; when, in fettling their Mythology, they made the Graces the conftant Atten dants of Venus, or the Caufe of Love; and, in Fact, there is nothing caufes Love fo generally, and fo irrefiftibly, as Grace. 'Tis like the Ceftus of the fame Godders, which was fuppofed to comprehend [i]

[b] Gratia, from gratus, or pleafing ; and decor, from decens, or becoming.

[+] Η, και απο ςηθεσφιν ελυσαίο κεςον ἱμανία
Ποικιλον ενθα δε οι θελκτήρια παλια τελυκλο.
Ενθ' ενι μεν Φιλότης, εν δ' Ιμερών, εν δ' Οαριους.
Παρφασις, ἡ τ' εκλεψε νοον συκα περ φρονεονίων
Τον ρα οι εμβαλι χερσιν, επι τ' εφατ', εκ τ' ονόμαζε.
Τη νυν τέλον ἱμανία, τεῳ δ' εγκαθες κολπῳ,
Ποικιλον, ᾧ ενι πανία τελευχαίαι" ουδε σε φημι
Απρηκίον γε νεεθαι, ό,τι φρεσι σῃσι μενοινας.
Ως φάτο, μείδησεν δε βοωπις πόνια Ηρη
Μειδήσασα δ' επείλα έῳ εγκαθείο κολπῳ.

Hom. Il. ξ. 214

She faid; with Awe divine, the Queen of Love
Obey'd the Sifter and the Wife of Jove:
And from her fragrant Breaft the Zone unbrac'd,
With various Skill and high Embroid❜ry grac'd.
In this was ev'ry Art, and ev'ry Charm,
Το win the wifeft, and the coldeft warm :
Fond Love, the gentle Vow, the gay Defire,
The kind Deceit, the ftill reviving Fire,

D 4

every

every thing that was winning and engaging in it; and befide all, to oblige the Heart to Love, by a fecret and inexplicable Force, like that of fome magic Charm.

AS CRITO paufed here, both MILESIUS and TIMANTHES thanked him for his Account of a Thing, which they had never heard fo far accounted for before; and the latter added, that in his Divifion of the Parts which conftitute Beauty, he, at firft, thought him guilty of an Omiffion, in not adding a Fifth, that of Motion. CRITO faid, that

Perfuafive Speech, and more persuasive Sighs,
Silence that spoke, and Eloquence of Eyes.
This on her Hand the Cyprian Goddess laid;
Take this, and with it all thy Wish, the faid:

With Smiles she took the Charm; and fmiling prest

The pow'rful Ceftus to her fnowy Breast. Pope, Il. xiv. 256.. La Motte's Imitation of the same Paffage, is extremely good too; though he adds a French Flourish at the End of it.

Ce tiffu, le fimbole & la cause à la fois
Du pouvoir de l'amour, du charme de fes loix.
Elle enflamme les yeux, de cet ardeur qui touche;
D'un fourire enchanteur, elle anime la bouche:
Paffionne la voix, en adoucit les fons:

Prête ces tours heureux, plus forts que les raifons:
Inspire, pour toucher, ces tendres stratagêmes ;
Ces refus attirans, l'ecueil des fages mêmes :
Et la nature enfin y voulut renfermer
Tout ce qui perfuade, & ce qui fait aimer.

En prenant ce tiffu, que Venus lui presente,
Junon n'étoit que belle, elle devient charmante.
Les graces, & les ris, les plaifirs, & les jeux,
Surpris cherchent Venus; doutent qui l' eft des deux:
L'Amour même trompé, trouve Junon plus belle;

Et, fon arc à la main, deja vole après elle,

he

he had not forgot that, but thought it was comprehended under the other Heads. For all genteel Motion (fays he,) as I have been so lately mentioning, falls under the Article of Grace; whence Horace calls it by it's true Name of graceful Motion; and common Motions are only fo many Variations of the Attitude, or Pofition of the particular Parts of the Body, and Features of the Face: The more fignificant of which, belong to the Article of the Paffions; and the less fignificant, may be comprehended under that of mere Form or Figure. And now I mention Horace, added he, it is obfervable enough, that he, and the other Roman Authors, have distinct Names for each of my Four conftituent Parts of Beauty, which the Commentators and Dictionary-writers have been fometimes too apt to mistake for Names of Beauty in general. Thus for the First they use the Word Color; for the Secord, Forma; for the Third, they seem to have had several diftin&t Names, according to the different Sorts of Paffions whose Delightfulness they spoke of; for the Fourth, they ufed Gratia and Decor, when they fpoke of it in general; and Venuflas or Dignitas, when they had a mind to be more particular. Their Word Nitor too [k], and fome others of a like Import, which seem sometimes to be used in general for Beauty,

Liparæi nitor Hebri.

Horat. Lib. iii. Od. xii. 6.

Urit me Glyceræ nitor
Splendentis Pario marmore purius.

Id. Lib. i. Od. xix. 6.

The Epithets marmoreus, eburneus, and candidus, are all applied to Beauties by the Roman Poets; fometimes as to their Shape, and fometimes as to the Shiningness here spoken of,

belong