FEMALE BEAUTY.

The object therefore of this mixed passion, which we call love, is the
BEAUTY of the SEX. Men are carried to the sex in general, as it is the
sex, and by the common law of nature; but they are attached to
particulars by personal BEAUTY. I call beauty a social quality; for
where women and men, and not only they, but when other animals give us a
sense of joy and pleasure in beholding them (and there are many that do
so), they inspire us with sentiments of tenderness and affection towards
their persons; we like to have them near us, and we enter willingly into
a kind of relation with them, unless we should have strong reasons to
the contrary.


NOVELTY AND CURIOSITY.

Curiosity is the most superficial of all the affections; it changes its
object perpetually, it has an appetite which is very sharp, but very
easily satisfied; and it has always an appearance of giddiness,
restlessness, and anxiety. Curiosity, from its nature, is a very active
principle; it quickly runs over the greatest part of its objects, and
soon exhausts the variety which is commonly to be met with in nature;
the same things make frequent returns, and they return with less and
less of any agreeable effect. In short, the occurrences of life, by the
time we come to know it a little, would be incapable of affecting the
mind with any other sensations than those of loathing and weariness, if
many things were not adapted to affect the mind by means of other powers
besides novelty in them, and of other passions besides curiosity in
ourselves.