Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/222

 to Palladio and Perrault, while they explain all the Parts and Proportions of a Pillar: They talk of the Cornice and Freeze and Base and Entablature and Shaft and Architrave; and give the Description and Position of each of these Members. But should you ask the Description and Position of its Beauty, they would readily reply, that the Beauty is not any of the Parts or Members of a Pillar, but results from the Whole, when that complicated Figure is presented to an intelligent Mind, susceptible of those finer Sensations. Till such a Spectator appear, there is nothing but a Figure of such particular Dimensions and Proportions: From his Sentiments alone arises its Elegance and Beauty.


 * attend to Cicero, while he paints the Crimes of a Verres or a Catiline; you must acknowledge, that the moral Turpitude results, in the same Manner, from the Contemplation of the Whole, when presented to a Being, whose Organs have such a particular Structure and Formation. The Orator may paint Rage, Insolence, Barbarity on the one Side: Meekness, Sufferance, Sorrow, Innocence on the other: But if you feel no Indignation or Compassion arise in you from this Complication of Circumstances, you would in vain ask him, wherein consist, the Crime or Villainy, which he so vehe-