DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48954#0375
Mr
v
Ch. XI. DIGNITY AND GRACE. 359
Having endeavoured to assign the efficient cause
os dignity and meanness , by unfolding the prin-
ciple on which they are founded, we proceed to
explain the final cause of the dignity or meanness
bestoWed upon the several particulars above men-
tioned , beginning with corporeal pleasures. These
as far as usefui, are, like justice , fenced with suf-
ficient sunctions to prevent their being neglefted :
hunger and third are painful sensations ; and we
are incited to animal love by a vigorous propensi-
ty : were corporeal pleasures dignisied over and
above with a place in a high class , they would in-
fallibly disturb the balance of the mind, by out-
weighing the social affections. This is a satissac-
tory final cause for rcfusing to these pleasures any
degree of dignity : and the final cause is no less
evident of their meanness, when they are indul-
ged to excess. The more refined pleasures of ex-
ternal sense, conveyed by the eye and the ear from
natural objefts and from the fine arts, deserve a high
place in our esteem, because of their lingular and
extensive utility : in some cases they rise to a con-
siderable dignity ; and the very lowed pleasures
of the kind are never esteemed mean or grovel-
ing. The pleasure arising from wit, humor, ri-
dicule, or srom what is limply ludicrous, is usefui,
by relaxing the mind after the satigue os more
manly occupation : but the mind , when it sur-
renders itself to pleasure os that kind, loses its vi-
Z 4
v
Ch. XI. DIGNITY AND GRACE. 359
Having endeavoured to assign the efficient cause
os dignity and meanness , by unfolding the prin-
ciple on which they are founded, we proceed to
explain the final cause of the dignity or meanness
bestoWed upon the several particulars above men-
tioned , beginning with corporeal pleasures. These
as far as usefui, are, like justice , fenced with suf-
ficient sunctions to prevent their being neglefted :
hunger and third are painful sensations ; and we
are incited to animal love by a vigorous propensi-
ty : were corporeal pleasures dignisied over and
above with a place in a high class , they would in-
fallibly disturb the balance of the mind, by out-
weighing the social affections. This is a satissac-
tory final cause for rcfusing to these pleasures any
degree of dignity : and the final cause is no less
evident of their meanness, when they are indul-
ged to excess. The more refined pleasures of ex-
ternal sense, conveyed by the eye and the ear from
natural objefts and from the fine arts, deserve a high
place in our esteem, because of their lingular and
extensive utility : in some cases they rise to a con-
siderable dignity ; and the very lowed pleasures
of the kind are never esteemed mean or grovel-
ing. The pleasure arising from wit, humor, ri-
dicule, or srom what is limply ludicrous, is usefui,
by relaxing the mind after the satigue os more
manly occupation : but the mind , when it sur-
renders itself to pleasure os that kind, loses its vi-
Z 4