as beauty, qualities, that are always equally
admired, because the words, by which they are
expressed, are terms of approbation. But,
nevertheless, these terms are entirely under the
influence of fashion; and are applied to every
novelty of style or manner, to which accident
or caprice gives a momentary currency. Pietro
da Cortona and Bernini would, without doubt,
have maintained their pretensions to them as
firmly, and, probably, as sincerely as Raphael,`
Annibal Caracci, or Nicolas Poussin; and their
admirers would have supported their claims
with equal obstinacy for no
obstinacy for no person ever
adopted or admired a style, which he felt or
thought to be inelegant, ungraceful, or impure;
but the meaning, which the words elegance,
grace, and purity bear, differs, not only in dif-
ferent individuals, but in the same individuals,
accordingly as they are differently applied. We
often hear the same persons talk of the grace
and elegance of a Greek statue, and of a French
dancer; and, perhaps, with equal sincerity:
for, either they feel neither, and are guided, in
the one instance, by the authority of criticism;
and, in the other, by that of fashion; or, per-
haps, they feel both; but, in the latter instance,
misapply the terms, or mistake the causes of
their feelings for, as novelty and difficulty,
displayed in extraordinary feats of bodily
strength and agility, are really and universally

F F

CHAP.

III.

Of Novelty.

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III.

pleasing, it is no wonder that they should, in the laxity of colloquial language, be called by Of Novelty. those terms, which are generally and indiscri

minately employed to signify pleasing modifications of form and action.

6. There is no extravagance or absurdity of dress, or personal decoration or disguise, to which the same terms have not been applied with equal sincerity, so long as it has borne the gloss of novelty, or stamp of fashion; and, perhaps, painters, sculptors, and writers may be no further answerable for the corruptions of taste in art and eloquence, than taylors and milliners are for those in dress; since, in all professions

Those, who live to please, must please to live. The restless desire of novelty, so general among all mankind, may, perhaps, be the principle of both; to the extravagancies and caprices of which, those, who make it their business to supply the gratifications, must, of course, conform for whether an artist or an author work for money or for fame, he is equally dependent upon public opinion; since mere posthumous fame is but a cold and distant reward; and is, moreover, one of which no person can be certain *.

Semper oratorum eloquentiæ moderatrix fuit auditorum prudentia. Omnes enim, qui probari volunt, volun

7. The corruptions of art and the extravagancies of dress have, as far as I have been able to observe, universally accompanied each other but poetry and elocution have never manifested any symptoms of sympathy with either. From the middle of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century, the fashions in dress were carried to the utmost extreme of absurdity; and imitative art sunk to its lowest state of degradation; at the same time that taste in literary composition, both in England and France, attained a degree of purity and perfection only surpassed by that of the finest ages of Greece and Rome. The case is that imitative art, being employed in exhibiting exterior and visible forms only, necessarily catches its style of imitation, in some degree at least, from those, with which it is most familiar; while writing, being employed in expressing mind only, is entirely independent, even in its imitations, of all external appear

ances.

8. Perhaps one great cause of the permanency of style, and continued identity of taste, in ancient art, was the permanency and unvaried simplicity of dress. From the age of Pericles to that of Hadrian, during a period of between

tatem eorum, qui audiunt, intuentur, ad eamque, et ad eorum arbitrium et nutum totos se fingunt, et accommodant." CIC, Orat. ad Brutum, c. 24.

CHAP.

III.

Of Novelty.

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Of Novelty.

five and six hundred years, under the successive domination of the Athenians, the Lacedæmonians, the Macedonians, and the Romans, there was less variation in the style and taste of imitative art, through all the different states, that composed those empires, excepting only Egypt, than there is, not only between those of any two schools, but between、 those of any two successive ages of the same school, in modern Europe. During all that period also, a simplicity of dress, bordering upon negligence, and even approaching to nudity, universally prevailed; and any deviation. from it was deemed a symptom of barbarism and corruption of manners unbecoming a man of rank and education *. Even the women, during that period, never attempted to exchange their native charms for the adscititious ornaments of dress: for, though the limbs and body were more or less concealed, as general custom or individual modesty occasionally required, they never were so disguised, but that the general forms of a human creature were

Thucyd. lib. i. 6.

"Sed tibi nec ferro placeat torquere capillos:

Nec tua mordaci pumice crura teras.

Ista jube faciant quorum Cybeleïa mater
Concinitur Phrygiis exululata modis.
Forma viros neglecta decet

OVID. de Arte Amandi, 1. i. v. 505.

See also the Portraits upon Coins, &c.

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III.

suffered to appear; which is not the case with a lady in stays and a hoop. About the age of Of Novelty. Hadrian, the Roman women of fashion began to dress their hair in fantastic forms, wholly unlike those of nature; and when once disguise was thus mistaken for embellishment, there was no longer any principle to check the extravagancies of caprice. Consequently novelty and splendor were soon mistaken for grace and elegance; and as the contagion immediately communicated itself to the other sex, all simplicity of taste in dress and manners; and, with it, all purity of style in art were banished; and the licentious and operose barbarism of the Byzantine court gradually succeeded.

9. But though the passion for novelty has been the principal means of corrupting taste, it has also been a principal mean of polishing and perfecting it*; for, imitation being in itself pleasing, men are always delighted with the best specimens, which they have seen of it, be they ever so bad; and it is merely the desire of something new, and not any preconceived ideas of something better, that urges them on to seek for improvement. As long as this rest

• άπαντα μεν τοι, τα οὕτως ασεμνα, δια μιαν εμφυεται τοις λογοις αιτίαν, δια το περι τας νοησεις καινοσπέδον αφ' ὧν γαρ ημιν τ' αγαθα, σχεδόν απ' αυτων τετων και τα κακα gyrodas Piñer.-LONGIN. f. V.