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felf-love: benevolence and public fpirit, with all their refined emotions, are little felt, and lefs regarded and if these be excluded, there can be no place for the faint and delicate emotions of the fine arts.

The exclufion of claffes fo many and numerous, reduces within a narrow compafs thofe who are qualified to be judges in the fine arts. Many circumftances are neceffary to form a judge of this fort: there must be a good natural taste; that is, a taste approaching, at least in some degree, to the delicacy of taste above defcribed *: this taste must be improved by education, reflection, and experience t: it must be preferved

live,

Chap. 2. part 2.

That these particulars are useful, it may be faid neceffry, for acquiring a difcerning tafte in the fine arts, will appear from the following facts, which thow the influence of experience fingly. Those who live in the world and in good company, are quickfighted with respect to every defect or irregularity in behaviour: the very flightcft fingularity in motion, in fpeech, or in dress, which to a peasant would be invifible, efcapes not their observa tion. The moft minute differences in the human countenance, fo minute as to be far beyond the reach of words, are distinctly perceived by the plaineft perfon; while, at the fame time, the generality have very little difcernment in the faces of other animals to which they are lefs accustomed: fheep, for example, appear to have all the fame face, except to the fhepherd, who knows every individual in his flock, as well as he does his relations and neighbours. The very populace in Athens were critics in language, in pronunciation, and even in eloquence, harangues being their daily entertainment. In Rome, at prefent, the moit illiterate shopkeeper

live, by a regular courfe of life, by using the goods of fortune with moderation, and by following the dictates of improved nature, which gives welcome to every rational pleasure without deviating into excefs. This is the tenor of life which of all contributes the most to refinement of taite; and the fame tenor of life contributes the moft to happinefs in general.

If there appear much uncertainty in a ftandard that requires fo painful and intricate a felection, we may poffibly be reconciled to it by the following confideration, That, with refpect to the fine arts, there is lefs difference of taste than is commonly imagined. Nature hath marked all her works with indelible characters of high or low, plain or elegant, ftrong or weak: thefe, if at all perceived, are feldom mifapprehended by any tafte; and the fame marks are equally perceptible in works of art. A defective tafte is incurable; and it hurts none but the poffeffor, because it carries no authority to impofe upon others. I know not if there be fuch a thing as a taste natu

on nature.

is a better judge of ftatues and of pictures, than perfons of the highest education in London. These facts afford convincing evi. dence, that a difcerning taste depends ftill more on experience than But these facts merit peculiar regard for another reafon, that they open to us a fure method for improving our taste in the fine arts; which, with respect to those who have leifure for improvements, ought to be a powerful incitement to cultivate a tafte in these arts; an occupation that cannot fail to embellish their manners, and to fweeten fociety.

rally

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rally bad or wrong; a taste, for example, that prefers a groveling pleafure before one that is high and elegant: groveling pleasures are never preferred; they are only made welcome by thofe who know no better. Differences about objects of taste, it is true, are endless: but they generally concern trifles, or poffibly matters of equal rank, where the preference may be given either way with impunity: if, on any occafion, the dispute go deeper, and perfons differ where they ought not, a depraved taste will readily be difcovered on one or other fide, occafioned by imitation, custom, or corrupted manners, fuch as are defcribed above.

If, after all that is faid, the ftandard of tafte be thought not yet fufficiently afcertained, there is ftill one refource in which I put great confidence. What I have in view, are the principles that constitute the fenfitive part of our nature. By means of these principles, common to all men, a wonderful uniformity is preferved among the emotions and feelings of different individuals; the fame object making upon every perfon the fame impreffion; the fame in kind, at least, if not in degree. There have been aberrations, as above obferved, from thefe principles; but foon or late they always prevail, by restoring the wanderers to the right track. The uniformity of tafte here accounted for, is the very thing that in other words is termed the common fenfe of mankind. And this difcovery leads us to means VOL. II. I i

for

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for afcertaining the common fense of mankind, or the ftandard of tafte, more unerringly than the selection above infifted on: every doubt with relation to this standard, occafioned by the practice of different nations and different times, may be cleared by appealing to the principles that ought to govern the tafte of every individual; and to make us acquainted with these principles, is the declared purpose of the prefent undertaking.

APPEN

APPENDIX.

TERMS DEFINED OR EXPLAINED.

499

I.

"E

VERY thing we perceive, whether a being or a quality, a paffion or an action, is with respect to the percipient termed an object. Some objects appear to be internal, or within the mind, paffion for example, thinking, volition: fome external, fuch as every object of fight, of hearing, of fimell, of touch, of tafte.

2. The power or faculty by which I perceive an internal object, is termed an internal sense: the power or faculty by which I perceive an external object, is termed an external fenfe. This distinction refers to the objects of perception; for the fenfes, whether external or internal, are all of them powers or faculties of the mind.

3. But as felf is an object that cannot be termed either external or internal, the faculty by which I am confcious of myself, is a fenfe that cannot properly be termed either internal or external.

4. By fight we perceive the qualities figure, colour, motion, &c.: by the ear we perceive the different qualities of found, high, low, loud, foft by touch we perceive the qualities rough, fmooth,

Ii2

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