Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Happiness Of Life Attributed To The Varieties Of Human Sentiments And Opinions.
to render the scheme of universal convenience and happiness complete . For AA'ithout this AA'ise direction to our understandings , how should we be able , amongst such multitudes of created beings , to distinguish one countenance from another ? Or in what manner could Ave . be supposed to held intercourse or society together ? The resemblance Ave see frequently in faces of the same family is admirableand serves to unite those of the same house or kindred
to-, gether , at the same time that there is no perfect likeness either iti voice or features in any two persons in any family existing ! What wisdom is this ? And let me ask the greatest Infidel ( h Infidels there really are ) whether he thinks any power less tha , n Omnipotence could do this ? But to proceed—How often does a very singular pleasure arise between two persons accidentally meeting and knowing one
another at great distances of time , by something in ' their voices and persons , which hath thus brought them to an immediate recollection of each other ? And how often hath the most consummate villain , who , perhaps , hath long concealed himself from the hand of Justice , been detected and brought to the bar , through something remarkable in his shapehis voiceor his features ?
, , Nature , which is only another name for Providence , seems fb wanton in the variety she exhibits in every part of the creation . In the animal , in the vegetable part she is wonderfully" astonishing and pleasing .. What can be a greater feast to the fancy than a walk amongst the glowing colours of a beautiful parterre ? And what , let me ask , can be more beautiful to the ' eye than the train . of the peacock ,
or the symmetry or the greyhound , or of numbers of other birds ana animals , particularly of the eastern nations ? 'But I come now to the point I next aimed at , namely , to the variety to be found in the formation of the human species , and of the different fancies it employs . 1 begin with that most beautiful of all the Almighty ' s works , a beauful woman .- I Avould not be understood here to mean that beauty { done which displays itself in a well coloured skin and a fine shape
, but she only , who , to a fine person , adds the more attractive charms of a devout mind , and an enlightened understanding , and whose temper is all sAveetness and complacency : for such a one there is no name . This naturally leads me to take notice of another instance of the supreme wisdom in A'arying our fancies and attractions with respect to beauty , than which nothing can be more arbitrary ; for Avithout this
difference of taste and opinion , the very peopling of kingdoms , and ihe interests of society , could not possibly be effected-or promoted , and we should live in a state of perpetual quarrel and discoid among ourselves . A man of a lively turn is pleased to see a good deal of vivacity in the mistress of his affections , Avhilst a man of a milder temper chuses one whose passions appear more gentle . One likes a
woman of a broAvn , and another of a fair complexion ; some fancy a woman Avith a large , and others with a slender shape * , some see most beauty in a tail , and others in a short person ; and the soldier with his braAvny shouldered wench , whose . 'kin , perhaps , is as coarse as her gown , is equally happy and equally as contented as the Captain with his military mistress . To sliik die scone—Do we not frequently ' see
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Happiness Of Life Attributed To The Varieties Of Human Sentiments And Opinions.
to render the scheme of universal convenience and happiness complete . For AA'ithout this AA'ise direction to our understandings , how should we be able , amongst such multitudes of created beings , to distinguish one countenance from another ? Or in what manner could Ave . be supposed to held intercourse or society together ? The resemblance Ave see frequently in faces of the same family is admirableand serves to unite those of the same house or kindred
to-, gether , at the same time that there is no perfect likeness either iti voice or features in any two persons in any family existing ! What wisdom is this ? And let me ask the greatest Infidel ( h Infidels there really are ) whether he thinks any power less tha , n Omnipotence could do this ? But to proceed—How often does a very singular pleasure arise between two persons accidentally meeting and knowing one
another at great distances of time , by something in ' their voices and persons , which hath thus brought them to an immediate recollection of each other ? And how often hath the most consummate villain , who , perhaps , hath long concealed himself from the hand of Justice , been detected and brought to the bar , through something remarkable in his shapehis voiceor his features ?
, , Nature , which is only another name for Providence , seems fb wanton in the variety she exhibits in every part of the creation . In the animal , in the vegetable part she is wonderfully" astonishing and pleasing .. What can be a greater feast to the fancy than a walk amongst the glowing colours of a beautiful parterre ? And what , let me ask , can be more beautiful to the ' eye than the train . of the peacock ,
or the symmetry or the greyhound , or of numbers of other birds ana animals , particularly of the eastern nations ? 'But I come now to the point I next aimed at , namely , to the variety to be found in the formation of the human species , and of the different fancies it employs . 1 begin with that most beautiful of all the Almighty ' s works , a beauful woman .- I Avould not be understood here to mean that beauty { done which displays itself in a well coloured skin and a fine shape
, but she only , who , to a fine person , adds the more attractive charms of a devout mind , and an enlightened understanding , and whose temper is all sAveetness and complacency : for such a one there is no name . This naturally leads me to take notice of another instance of the supreme wisdom in A'arying our fancies and attractions with respect to beauty , than which nothing can be more arbitrary ; for Avithout this
difference of taste and opinion , the very peopling of kingdoms , and ihe interests of society , could not possibly be effected-or promoted , and we should live in a state of perpetual quarrel and discoid among ourselves . A man of a lively turn is pleased to see a good deal of vivacity in the mistress of his affections , Avhilst a man of a milder temper chuses one whose passions appear more gentle . One likes a
woman of a broAvn , and another of a fair complexion ; some fancy a woman Avith a large , and others with a slender shape * , some see most beauty in a tail , and others in a short person ; and the soldier with his braAvny shouldered wench , whose . 'kin , perhaps , is as coarse as her gown , is equally happy and equally as contented as the Captain with his military mistress . To sliik die scone—Do we not frequently ' see