PART IV.

Of the EFFECT of UTILITY upon the fentiment of approbation.

CONSISTING OF ONE SECTION.

СНАР. І.

Of the beauty which the appearance of UTILITY beStows upon all the productions of art, and of the extensive influence of this fpecies of beauty.

THAT utility is one of the principal fources

of beauty has been obferved by every body, who has confidered with any attention what conftitutes the nature of beauty. The conveniency of a houfe gives pleafure to the fpectator as well as its regularity, and he is as much hurt when he obferves the contrary defect, as when he fees the correfpondent windows of different forms, or the door not placed exactly in the middle of the building. That the fitness of any fyftem or machine to produce the end for which it was intended, beftows a certain propriety and beauty upon the whole, and renders the very thought and contemplation of it agreeable, is so very obvious that nobody has overlooked it.

The

Part IV. The caufe too, why utility pleases, has of late been affigned by an ingenious and agreeable philofopher, who joins the greatest depth of thought to the greatest elegance of expreffion, and poffeffes the fingular and happy talent of treating the abftrufest fubjects not only with the moft perfect perfpicuity, but with the most lively eloquence. The utility of any object, according to him, pleases the mafter by perpetually fuggefting to him the pleasure or conveniency which it is fitted to promote. Every time he looks at it, he is put in mind of this pleasure; and the object in this manner becomes a fource of perpetual fatisfaction and enjoyment. The spectator enters by fympathy into the fentiments of the master, and neceffarily views the object under the fame agreeable afpect. When we vifit the palaces of the great, we cannot help conceiving the fatisfaction we should enjoy if we ourselves were the masters, and were poffeffed of fo much artful and ingeniously contrived accommodation. A fimilar account is given why the appearance of inconveniency fhould render any object disagreeable both to the owner and to the spectator.

But that this fitnefs, this happy contrivance of any production of art, fhould often be more valued, than the very end for which it was intended; and that the exact adjustment of the means for attaining any conveniency or pleasure, should frequently be more regarded, than that very conveniency or pleafure, in the attainment of which their whole merit would feem to confist, has not, fo far as I know, been yet taken notice of by any body. That this however is very frequently the cafe, may be observed

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in a thousand inftances, both in the moft frivolous and in the most important concerns of human life.

When a perfon comes into his chamber, and finds the chairs all standing in the middle of the room, he is angry with his fervant, and rather than fee them continue in that disorder, perhaps takes the trouble himself to set them all in their places with their backs to the wall. The whole propriety of this new fitu-. ation arises from its fuperior conveniency in leaving the floor free and difengaged. To attain this conveniency he voluntarily puts himself to more trouble than all he could have fuffered from the want of it; fince nothing was more eafy, than to have fet himfelf down upon one of them, which is probably what he does when his labour is over. What he wanted therefore, it feems, was not fo much this conveniency, as that arrangement of things which promotes it. Yet it is this conveniency which ultimately recommends that arrangement, and bestows upon it the whole of its propriety and beauty.

A watch, in the fame manner, that falls behind above two minutes in a day, is defpifed by one curious in watches. He fells it perhaps for a couple of guineas, and purchases another at fifty, which will not lose above a minute in a fortnight. The fole ufe of watches however, is to tell us what o'clock it is, and to hinder us from breaking any engagement, or fuffering any other inconveniency by our ignorance in that particular point. But the perfon fo nice with regard to this machine, will not always be found either more fcrupuloufiy punctual than other men, or more anxiously concerned upon any other account, to know precisely what time of day

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it is. What interefts him is not fo much the attainment of this piece of knowledge, as the perfection of the machine which ferves to attain it.

How many people ruin themselves by laying out money on trinkets of frivolous utility? What pleases these lovers of toys is not fo much the utility, as the aptness of the machines which are fitted to promote it. All their pockets are ftuffed with little conveniencies. They contrive new pockets, unknown in the clothes of other people, in order to carry a greater number. They walk about loaded with a multitude of baubles, in weight and fometimes in value not inferior to an ordinary Jew's-box, fome of which may fometimes be of fame little ufe, but all of which might at all times be very well fpared, and of which the whole utility is certainly not worth the fatigue of bearing the burden.

Nor is it only with regard to fuch frivolous objects that our conduct is influenced by this principle; it is often the fecret motive of the most serious and important purfuits of both private and public life.

The poor man's fon, whom Heaven in its anger has vifited with ambition, when he begins to look around him admires the condition of the rich. He finds the cottage of his father too fmall for his accommodation, and fancies he fhould be lodged more at his ease in a palace. He is difpleafed with being obliged to walk a-foot, or to endure the fatigue of riding on horseback. He fees his fuperiors carried about in machines, and imagines that in one of these he could travel with lefs inconveniency. He

feels

feels himself naturally indolent, and willing to ferve himself with his own hands as little as poffible; and judges, that numerous retinue of fervants would fave him from a great deal of trouble. He thinks if he had attained all thefe, he would fit ftill contentedly, and be quiet, enjoying himself in the thought of the happinefs and tranquillity of his fituation. He is enchanted with the diftant idea of this felicity. It appears in his fancy like the life of fome fuperior rank of beings, and in order to arrive at it, he devotes himself for ever to the purfuit of wealth and greatness. To obtain the conveniencies which thefe afford, he fubmits in the first year, nay in the first month of his application, to more fatigue of body and more uneafinefs of mind than he could have fuffered through the whole of his life from the want of them. He ftudies to distinguish himself in fome laborious profeffion. With the most unrelenting industry he labours night and day to acquire talents fuperior to all his competitors. He endeavours next to bring thofe talents into public view, and with equal affiduity folicits every opportunity of employment. For this purpose he makes his court to all mankind; he ferves thofe whom he hates, and is obfequious to those whom he defpifes. Through the whole of his life he purfues the idea of a certain artificial and elegant repofe which he may never arrive at, for which he facrifices a real tranquillity that is at all times in his power, and which, if in the extremity of old age he fhould at laft attain to it, he will find to be in no refpect preferable to that humble fecurity and contentment which he had abandoned for it. It is then, in the laft dregs of life, his body wafted with toil and diseases, his mind galled and ruffled by the memory of a thou