Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 1.pdf/78

 who was a great Admirer of the Cretan Constitutions, set his excellent Wit to find out some good Cause, and Use of this Evil Inclination, and therefore gives an Account, wherefore Beauty is to be lov'd, in the following Passage; for I will not trouble the Reader, weary perhaps already, with a long Greek Quotation. ''There is but one Eternal, Immutable, Uniform Beauty; in contemplation of which, our Soveraign Happiness does consist: And therefore a true Lover considers Beauty and Proportion as so many Steps and Degrees, by which he may ascend from the particular to the general, from all that is lovely of Feature, or regular in Proportion, or charming in Sound, to the general Fountain of all Perfection. And if you are so much transported with the sight of Beautiful Persons, as to wish neither to eat or drink, but pass your whole Life in their Conversation; to what extasie would it raise you to behold the OrignalOriginal [sic] Beauty, not fill'd up with Flesh and Blood, or varnish'd with a fading mixture of Colours, and the rest of Mortal Trifles and''