Part III, Sections IX - XXVII Summary and Analysis

Section IX: Perfection is not beauty, in fact "beauty in distress" is "much the most affecting beauty."

Section X: Beauty is not tied to virtue, which the mind ascribes to people. Burke claims that we hold our fathers as virtuous and "justly venerable," but for the reasons of our parenting and discipline, fathers are distant and strict and therefore we cannot love our fathers entirely. However, we love our grandfathers, who are not charged with disciplining or raising us.

Section XI: Confounding beauty and virtue is dangerous and can lead to an inaccuracies and all sorts of whimsical theories on the subject.

Section XII: Having described what beauty is not, beauty is a quality that acts "mechanically upon the human mind by intervention of the senses." Burke will not proceed to...