CHAP. III. Of Novelty. less desire of novelty can restrain itself, in imitative art, to the imitation of real genuine nature, it will only tend to real improvement, and limit its gratifications to varieties of perfection, and degrees of refinement: but, when it calls upon invention to usurp the place of imitation; or substitute to genuine, or merely embellished nature, nature sophisticated and corrupted by artificial habits, it immediately produces vice and extravagance of manner. Of the first, Michael Angelo was a memorable instance; and of the second, Bernini; both of whom were men of extraordinary genius and talents; but stimulated into manner and extravagance of opposite kinds by an insatiate desire of novelty and originality; which was, nevertheless, more, perhaps, the general vice of the times, in which they respectively lived, than their own peculiarly for we may observe that it operates, in modes and degrees nearly similar, in the contemporary Italian poets Ariosto and Marino; who were likewise men of uncommon talents; and who, in their respective faults and merits of this kind, nearly resemble the sculptors, with whom they respectively flourished, Ariosto, like Michael Angelo, is bold and spirited, but extravagant; while Marino, like Bernini, is redundant, smooth, and ingenious; but frivolous and affected. The merits and faults of the two first are certainly of a higher class; and the judgment of the public has, therefore, justly given them a higher rank and station in literature and art. Ariosto's extravagance is, indeed, of a very different kind from Michael Angelo's, whose genius more resembled Milton's; but still it is equally extravagance. 10. There is, however, another cause, besides the mere love of novelty, for that profusion of ornament, and unremitted ́affectation. of elegance and splendor, which distinguish the decline or corruption of taste in every species of literary composition. When a language has been cultivated with success, and enriched with popular works in prose and verse, the brilliant and prominent passages of the most popular and admired of them become fixed in every person's memory; and are thus made the scale, by which they measure, and the criterion, by which they judge the general style of succeeding compositions; which are consequently condemned as flat, trite, or unpolished, if they do not uniformly stand this unfair test. If, on the contrary, they do, they necessarily display ornament, where the subject requires plainness and simplicity; and thus acquire that tawdry character, which, though generally abused, can alone secure attention; and authors can bear abuse, at all times, with much more patience than neglect. CHAP. III. Of Novelty. CHAP. Of Novelty. 11. It is observed by a great critic that men judge of the merits of a living writer by his worst performances; and of those of a dead one, by his best *: and this they do, not so much from any principle of malignity or envy, as because they remember only the most brilliant passages of the one; and consequently apply them, even mechanically and unintentionally, as the standards, by which they try the least brilliant of the others. Hence, an unvaried degree of brilliance and ornament being required, those, whose business it is to gratify public taste, strive to dress every part of their compositions alike; whether the subject admit of such dress and decoration or not and as they thus get into a habit of adorning their style by rule and system, instead of by taste and feeling, they adorn all parts of it ill; and are always either frivolous or extravagant: for, when just feeling and a discriminating tact cease to be the legitimate criteria of excellence, the caprices of novelty are freed from all restraint; and the fashion of the day becomes the only test of merit f. Dr. Johnson, Pref. to Shakspeare. + Quæ non laudantur modo a plerisque, sed (quod pejus est) propter hoc ipsum, quod sunt prava laudantur: nam sermo rectus, et secundum naturam enunciatus, nihil habere ex ingenio videtur. QUINTILIANI, Instit. 1. ii. c. v. СНАР. III.. 12. As writers and readers multiply in a language, every plain and easy mode of expres- Of Novelty. sion, which it affords, becomes trite and common by frequent repetition; and certain degrees of vicious refinement and affectation become absolutely necessary to exalt the style above the familiar vulgarity of common colloquial speech; and as this common colloquial speech is constantly extending its usurpations, and vulgarising refinement; refinement can only maintain its character and keep out of its reach, by constantly retreating from it, and becoming more refined; and consequently more affected and constrained: this will be found to be the progress of all highly polished languages. 13. In no art has the passion for novelty had more influence, than in that of landscape gardening, or embellishing and improving grounds; of which it appears hitherto to have been almost the sole principle. Whenever this art has been practised in countries only partially and imperfectly cultivated; as in the ancient Persian and Roman empires; and in the modern kingdons and states of Europe till lately; it always appeared to delight in a profuse display of labour and expense; and in deviating as much as possible from ordinary nature. Rivers, springs, groves, lawns, and forests were to be seen every where; and the country was covered with fine trees, which exhibited every variety of natural CHAP. III. Of Novelty, form but canals, fountains, quincunxes, and parterres were only to be seen where art and industry had formed them; and trees cut into the shapes of pyramids and colonnades, men and animals, were new and unusual objects; and such as were only to be found in highly dressed gardens. Novelty, contrast, and surprise are naturally so pleasing, that every person was delighted with objects of this kind; and as the word beauty is always applied indiscriminately to every visible object that is, in any way, pleasing, no one hesitated in calling them beautiful. A great writer has, indeed, gone still further, and so completely sacrificed both his feelings and his philosophy to the fashion of the day, that, in investigating the subject, he discovers that surprise, arising from novelty and contrast, is the genuine principle. of beauty; and that consequently the Boromean island, in which all these tricks of art are contrasted with wild uncultivated mountains surrounding an extensive lake, is the most beautiful spot on the globe *. Another great writer afterwards discovered that surprise or astonishment was the genuine principle, not of the beautiful, but of the sublime; which, according to him, is as diametrically opposite to beauty, as pain is to pleasure †. When Montesquieu and 樂 Montesquieu, Fragm. sur le Gout. Inquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. |