N07809:367
Two dissertations, I. Concerning the end for which God created the world. II. The…
Two dissertations, I. Concerning the end for which God created the world. II. The nature of true virtue. / by the late Reverend, learned and pious Jonathan Edwards, A.M. president of the College in New-Jersey.
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland, 1765
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
IN this a sensation of secondary beauty differs from a sensation of primary and spiritual beauty, consisting in a spiritual union and agreement. What makes the latter grateful, is perceiving the union itself. 'Tis the immediate view of that wherein the beauty fundamentally lies, that is pleasing to the virtuous mind.
(2.) AS was observed before, God in establishing such a law that mutual natural agreement of different things, in form, quantity, &c. should appear beautiful or grateful to men, seems to have had regard to the image and resemblance there is in such a natural agreement, of that spiritual cordial agreement, wherein original beauty consists, as one reason why he established such a law. But it is not any reflection upon, or perception of, such a resemblance of this to spiritual beauty, that is the reason why such a form or state of objects appear beautiful to men: but their sensation of pleasure, on a view of this secondary beauty is immediately owing to the law God has established, or the instinct he has given.
(2.) AS was observ'd before, God in establishing such a law that mutual natural agreement of different things, in form, quantity, &c. should appear beautiful or grateful to men, seems to have had regard to the image and resemblance there is in such a natural agreement, of that spiritual cordial agreement, wherein original beauty consists, as one reason why he established such a law. But it is not any reflection upon, or preception of, such a resemblance of this to spiritual beauty, that is the reason why such a form or state of objects appear beautiful to men: but their sensation of pleasure, on a view of this secondary beauty is immediately owing to the law God has established, or the instinct he has given.
2. ANOTHER thing observable concerning this kind of beauty, is, that it affects the mind more (other things being equal) when taken notice of in objects which are of considerable importance, than in little trivial matters. Thus, the symmetry of the parts of a human body, or countenance, affects the mind more than the beauty of a flower. So, the beauty of the solar system, more than as great and as manifold an order and uniformity in a tree. And the proportions of the parts of a church, or a palace, more than the same proportions in some little slight compositions, made to please children.