at the fame time it tends to foften the more violent and angry emotions. Ingenuas didiciffe fideliter artes Emollit mores, nec finit effe feros. These polish'd arts have humaniz'd mankind, Poetry, Eloquence, and Hiftory continually exhibit to our view thofe elevated fentiments and high examples, which tend to nourish in our minds public fpirit, love of glory, contempt of external fortune, and admiration of every thing truly great, noble, and illuftrious. ON TASTE. TASTE is "the power of receiving pleasure or pain from the beauties or deformities of Nature "and of Art. It is a faculty common in fome degree to all men. Through the circle of human nature nothing is more general, than the relifh of Beauty of one kind or other; of what is orderly, proportioned, grand, harmonious, new, or fprightly. Nor does there prevail less generally a difrelish of whatever is grofs, difproportioned, diforderly, and difcordant. In children the rudiments of Tafte appear very early in a thousand instances; in their partiality for regular bodies, their fondness for pictures and statues, and their warm attachment to whatever is new or aftonishing. The most stupid peafants receive pleafure from tales and ballads, and are delighted with the beautiful appearances of nature in the earth and heavens. Even in the deferts of America, where human nature appears in its moft uncultivated state, the favages have their ornaments of dress, their war and their death fongs, their harangues and their orators. B The principles of Tafte must therefore be deeply founded in the human mind. To have fome difcernment of Beauty is no less essential to man, than to poffefs the attributes of fpeech and reafon. Though no human being can be entirely devoid of this faculty, yet it is poffeffed in very different degrees. In fome men only faint glimmerings of Tafte are vifible; the beauties, which they relish are of the coarsest kind; and of these they have only a weak and confufed impreffion; while in others Taste rises to an acute difcernment, and a lively enjoyment of the moft refined beauties. This inequality of Taste among men is to be afcribed undoubtedly in part to the different frame of their natures; to nicer organs, and more delicate internal powers, with which fome are endued beyond others; yet it is owing still more to culture and education. Tafte is certainly one of the most improveable faculties of our nature. We may easily be convinced of the truth of this affertion by only reflecting on that immenfe fuperiority, which education and improvement give to civilized above barbarous nations in refinement of Tafte; and on the advantage, which they give in the fame nation to thofe, who haveftudied the liberal arts, above the rude and illiterate vulgar. Reafon and good fenfe have fo extenfive an influence on all the operations and decifions of Tafte, that a com pletely good Tafte may well be confidered, as a power compounded of natural fenfibility to beauty and of improved understanding. To be fatisfied of this, we may obferve, that the greater part of the productions of Genius are no other, than imitations of nature; representations of the characters, actions, or manners of men. Now the pleafure, we experience from fuch imitations or reprefentations, is founded on mere Taste; but to judge, whether they be properly executed, belongs to the understanding, which compares the copy with the original. In reading, for instance, the Æneid of Virgil a great part of our pleasure arifes from the proper conduct of the plan or story; from all the parts being joined together with probability and due connection; from the adoption of the characters from nature, the correfpondence of the fentiments to the characters, and of the ftyle to the fentiments. The pleasure, which is derived from a poem fo conducted, is felt or enjoyed by Tafte, as an internal sense; but the difcovery of this conduct in the poem is owing to reafon; and the more reafon enables us to difcover fuch propriety in the conduct, the greater will be our pleasure. The conftituents of Tafte, when brought to its most perfect state, are two, Delicacy and Correctness. Delicacy of Tafte refers principally to the perfection of that natural fenfibility, on which Tafte is founded. It implies thofe finer organs or powers, which enable us to discover beauties, that are concealed from a vulgar eye. It is judged of by the fame marks, that we employ in judging of the delicacy of an external fenfe. As the goodness of the palate is not tried by strong flavours, but by a mixture of ingredients, where, notwithstanding the confufion, we remain sensible of each; fo delicacy of internal Taste appears by a quick and lively fenfibility to its fineft, moft compounded, or most latent objects. Correctnefs of Tafte refpects the improvement, this faculty receives through its connection with the understanding. A man of correct Taste is one, who is never impofed on by counterfeit beauties; who carries. always in his own mind that standard of good sense, which he employs in judging of every thing. He estimates with propriety the relative merit of the several beauties, which he meets in any work of genius ; refers them to their proper claffes; affigns the principles as far, as they can be traced, whence their power of pleafing is derived; and is pleased himself precisely in that degree, in which he ought, and no more. Tafte is certainly not an arbitrary principle, which is fubject to the fancy of every individual, and which admits no criterion for determining, whether it be true or falfe. Its foundation is the fame in every human mind. It is built upon fentiments and perceptions, which are infeparable from our nature; and which ge |