HOW FAR THE IDEA OF BEAUTY MAY BE APPLIED TO VIRTUE.
From what has been said in the foregoing section, we may easily see how
far the application of beauty to virtue may be made with propriety. The
general application of this quality to virtue has a strong tendency to
confound our ideas of things, and it has given rise to an infinite deal
of whimsical theory; as the affixing the name of beauty to proportion,
congruity, and perfection, as well as to qualities of things yet more
remote from our natural ideas of it, and from one another, has tended to
confound our ideas of beauty, and left us no standard or rule to judge
by, that was not even more uncertain and fallacious than our own
fancies. This loose and inaccurate manner of speaking has therefore
misled us both in the theory of taste and of morals; and induced us to
remove the science of our duties from their proper basis (our reason,
our relations, and our necessities), to rest it upon, foundations
altogether visionary and unsubstantial.