but flowly; and the greateft men have but gradually acquired a just tafte, and chafte fimple conceptions of beauty. At an immature age, the fenfe of beauty is weak and confufed, and requires an excefs of colouring to catch its attention. It then prefers extravagance and rant to juftnefs, a grofs falfe wit to the engaging light of nature, and the fhewy, rich, and glaring, to the fine and amiable. This is the childhood of tafte; but as the human genius ftrengthens and grows to maturity, if it be affited by a happy education, the fenfe of univerfal beauty awakes; it begins to be difgufted with the falfe and mishapen deceptions that pleafed before, and refts with delight on elegant fimplicity, on pictures of eafy beauty and unaffected grandeur.

The progrefs of the fine arts in the human mind may be fixed at three remarkable degrees, from their foundation to the loftieft height. The bafis is a fenfe of beauty and of the fublime, the fecond ftep we may call taste, and the last genius.

A fenfe of the beautiful and of the great is univerfal, which appears from the uniformity thereof in the most diftant ages and nations. What was engaging and fublime in ancient Greece and Rome, are fo at this day: and, as I obferved before, there is not the leaft neceflity of improve. ment or science, to discover the charms of a graceful or noble deportment. There is a fine, but an ineffectual light in the breaft of man. After nightfall we have admired the planet Venus; the beauty and vivacity of her luftre, the immenfe diftance from which we judged her beams iffued, and the filence of the night, all concurred to ftrike us with an agreeable amazement. But the fhone in diftinguished beauty, without giving fufficient light to direct our fteps, or thew us the objects around us. Thus in unimproved nature, the light of the mind is bright and ufelefs. In utter barbarity, our profpect of it is still lefs fixed; it appears, and then again feems wholly to vanish in the favage breaft, like the fame planet Venus, when he has but juft raised her orient beams to mariners above the waves, and is now defcried, and now loft, through the fwelling billows.

The next step is tafte, the fubject of our enquiry, which confifts in a diftinct, unconfufed knowledge of the great and beautiful. Although you fee not many poffeffed of a good tafte, yet the generality of mankind are capable of it. The very populace of Athens had acquired a good

tafte by habit and fine examples, fo that a delicacy of judgment feemed natural to all who breathed the air of that elegant. city: we find a manly and elevated fenfe distinguish the common people of Rome and of all the cities of Greece, while the level of mankind was preferved in those cities; while the Plebeians had a share in the government, and an utter feparation was not made between them and the nobles, by wealth and luxury. But when once the common people are rent asunder wholly from the great and opulent, and made fubfervient to the luxury of the lat ter; then the tale of nature infallibly takes her flight from both parties. The poor by a fordid habit, and an attention wholly confined to mean views, and the rich by an attention to the changeable modes of fancy, and a vitiated preference for the rich and coftly, lofe view of fimple beauty and grandeur. It may feem a paradox, and yet I am firmly perfuaded, that it would be eafier at this day to give a good tafte to the young favages of America, than to the noble youth of Europe.

Genius, the pride of man, as man is of the creation, has been poffeffed but by few, even in the brighteft ages. Men of fuperior genius, while they fee the reft of mankind painfully fruggling to comprehend obvious truths, glance themselves through the most remote confequences, like lightning through a path that cannot be traced. They fee the beauties of na. ture with life and warmth, and paint them forcibly without effort, as the morning fun does the fcenes he rifes upon; and in feveral inftances, communicate to objects a morning freshnefs and unaccountable luftre, that is not feen in the creation of nature, The poet, the flatuary, the painter, have produced images that left nature far behind.

The conftellations of extraordinary perfonages who appeared in Greece and Rome, at or near the fame period of time, after ages of darkness to which we know no beginning; and the long barrenness of those countries after in great men, prove that genius owes much of its luftre to a perfonal conteft of glory, and the ftrong rivalfhip of great examples within actual view and knowledge; and that great parts alone are not able to lift a perfon out of barbarity. It is further to be obferved, that when the infpiring fpirit of the fine arts retired, and left inanimate and cold the

Ee 4

breafts

breafts of poets, painters, and ftatuaries, men of taste ftill remained, who diftinguished and admired the beauteous monuments of genius; but the power of execution was loft; and although monarchs loved and courted the arts, yet they refufed to return. From whence it is evident, that neither tafte, nor natural parts, form the creating genius that infpired the great mafters of antiquity, and that they owed their extraordinary powers to fomething different from both."

If we confider the numbers of men who wrote well, and excelled in every department of the liberal arts, in the ages of genius, and the fimplicity that always attends beauty; we must be led to think, that although few perhaps can reach to the fupreme beauty of imagination difplayed by the first-rate poets, orators, and philofophers; yet moft men are capable of just thinking and agreeable writing, Nature lies very near our reflections, and will appear, if we be not mifled and prejudiced before the fenfe of beauty grows to maturity. The populace of Athens and Rome prove ftrongly, that uncommon parts or great learning are not neceffary to make men think justly. Ujber.

§ 229. Thoughts on the Human Capacity. We know not the bounds of taite, because we are unacquainted with the extent and boundaries of the human genius. The mind in ignorance is like a fleeping giant; it has immenfe capacities, without the power of ufing them. By listening to the lectures of Socrates, men grew heroes, philofophers, and legiflators; for he, of all mankind feemed to have difcovered the fhort and lightfome path to the faculties of the mind. To give you an inftance of the human capacity, that comes more immediately within your notice, what graces, what fentiments have been tranfplanted into the motion of a minuet, of which a favage has no conception! We know not to what degree of rapture harmony is capable of being carried, nor what hidden powers may be in yet unexperienced beauties of the imagination, whofe objects are in fcenes and in worlds we are ftrangers to. Children, who die young, have no conception of the fentiment of perfonal beauty. Are we certain that we are not yet children in refpect to several species of beauties? We are ignorant whether there be not paflions in the foul, that have

hitherto remained unawaked and undifcovered for want of objects to roufe them: we feel plainly, that fome fuch are gently agitated and moved by certain notes of mufic. In reality, we know not but the taite and capacity of beauty and grandeur in the foul, may extend as far beyond all we actually perceive, as this whole world exceeds the sphere of a cockle or an oyster. Ibid.

§ 230. Tafte how depraved and loft.

Let us now confider by what means taste is ufually depraved and lost in a nation, that is neither conquered by barbarians nor has loft the improvements in agriculture, husbandry, and defence, that allow men leifure for reflection and embellishment. I obferved before, that this natural light is not fo clear in the greatest men, but it may lie oppreffed by barbarity. When people of mean parts, and of pride without genius, get into elevated stations, they want a tafte for fimple grandeur, and mistake for it what is uncommonly glaring and extraordinary; whence proceeds falle wit of every kind, a gaudy richness in drefs, an oppreffive load of ornament in building, and a grandeur overftrained and puerile univerfally. I muft obferve, that people of bad taste and little genius almost always lay a great stress on trivial matters, and are oftentatious and exact in fingularities, or in a decorum in trifles. When people of mean parts appear in high stations, and at the head of the fashionable world, they cannot fail to introduce a falle embroidered habit of mind: people of nearly the fame genius, who make up the crowd, will admire and follow them; and at length folitary tafte, adorned only by noble fimplicity, will be loft in the general example.

Alfo when a nation is much corrupted; when avarice and a love of gain have feized upon the hearts of men; when the nobles ignominiously bend their necks to corruption and bribery, or enter into the bafe myfteries of gaming; then decency, elevated principles, and greatnefs of foul, expire; and all that remains is a comedy or puppet-thew of elegance, in which the dancing-mafter and peer are upon a level, and the mind is understood to have no part in the drama of politeness, or else to act under a mean difguife of virtues which it is not poffeffed of. Ibid.

$231. Some Reflections on the Human

Mind.

Upon putting together the whole of our reflections, you fee two different natures laying claim to the human race, and dragging it different ways. You fee a neceffity, that arifes from our fituation and circumftances, bending us down into unworthy mifery and fordid bafenefs; and you fee, when we can escape from the infulting tyranny of our fate, and acquire eafe and freedom, a generous nature, that lay ftupified and opprefied, begin to awake and charm us with profpects of beauty and glory. This awaking genius gazes in rapture at the beauteous and elevating fcenes of nature. The beauties of nature are familiar, and charm it like a mother's bofom; and the objects which have the plain marks of immenfe power and grandeur, raise in it a ftill, an inquifitive, and trembling delight: but genius often throws over the objects of its conceptions colours finer than thofe of nature, and opens a paradife that exists no where but in its own creations. The bright and peaceful fcenes of Arcadia, and the lovely defcriptions of paftoral poetry, never existed on earth, no more than Pope's fhepherds or the river gods of Windfor foreft: it is all but a charming illufion, which the mind firft paints with celeftial colours and then languishes for. Knight-errantry is another kind of delufion, which, though it be fictitious in fact, yet is true in fentiment. I believe there are few people who in their youth, before they be corrupted by the commerce of the world, are not knighterrants and princeffes in their hearts. The foul, in a beauteous ecstacy, communicates a flame to words which they had not; and poetry, by its quick tranfitions, bold figures, lively images, and the variety of efforts to paint the latent rapture, bears witnefs, that the confufed ideas of the mind are still infinitely fuperior, and beyond the reach of all defcription. It is this divine fpirit that, when roufed from its lethargy, breathes in noble fentiments, that charms in elegance, that ftamps upon marble or canvas the figures of gods and heroes, that infpires them with an air above humanity, and leads the foul through the enchanting meanders of mufic in a waking vifion, through which it cannot break, to discover the near objects that charm it.

How fhall we venture to trace the object of this furprizing beauty peculiar to

genius, which evidently does not come to the mind from the fenfes ? It is not conveyed in found, for we feel the founds of mufic charm us by gently agitating and fwelling the paflions, and fetting fome paffions aйoat, for which we have no name, and knew not until they were awaked in the mind by harmony. This beauty does not arrive at the mind by the ideas of vifion, though it be moved by them; for it evidently beftows on the mimic reprefentations and images the mind makes of the objects of fenfe, an enchanting loveliness that never exifted in thofe objects. Where fhall the foul find this amazing beauty, whofe very fhadow, glimmering upon the imagination, opens unfpeakable raptures in it, and diftracts it with languishing pleafure? What are thofe ftranger fentiments that lie in wait in the foul, until mufic calls them forth? What is the obfcure but unavoidable value or merit of virtue? cr who is the law-maker in the mind who gives it a worth and dignity beyond all eftimation, and punishes the breach of it with confcious terror and despair? What is it, in objects of immeafurable power and grandeur, that we look for with till amazement and awful delight ?-But I find, madam, we have been infenfibly led into fubjects too obftrufe and fevere; I must not put the graces with whom we have been converfing to flight, and draw the ferious air of meditation over that countenance where the fmiles naturally dwell.

I have, in confequence of your permiffion, put together fuch thoughts as occurred to me on good tafte. I told you, if I had leifure hereafter, I would difpofe of them with more regularity, and add any new obfervations that I may make. Before I finish, I muft in juftice make my acknowledgments of the affiftance I received. I took notice, at the beginning, that Rollin's Obfervations on Taite gave occafion to this difcourfe. Sir Harry Beaumont's polished dialogue on beauty, called Crito, was of fervice to me; and I have availed myself of the writings and fenti ments of the ancients, particularly of the poets and ftatuaries of Greece, which was the native and original country of the graces and fine arts. But I should be very unjust, if I did not make my chief acknowledgments where they are more peculiarly due. If your modefty will not fuffer me to draw that picture from which I borrowed my ideas of elegance, I am

bound

bound at least, in honefty, to disclaim every merit but that of copying from a bright original. Ufher.

$232. General Reflections upon what is calied Good Tafe. From ROLLIN'S Belles Lettres.

Tafte, as it now falls under our confideration, that is, with reference to the reading of authors and compofition, is a clear, lively, and diftinct difcerning of all the beauty, truth, and juftnefs of the thoughts and expreffions, which compofe a difcourfe. It diftinguishes what is conformable to eloquence and propriety in every character, and fuitable in different circumstances. And whilft, with a delicate, and exquifite fagacity, it notes the graces, turns, manners, and expreffions most likely to pleafe, it perceives alfo all the defects which produce the contrary effect, and diftinguishes precifely wherein thofe defects confift, and how far they are removed from the ftrict rules of art, and the real beauties of nature.

This happy faculty, which it is more eafy to conceive than define, is lefs the effect of genius than judgment, and a kind of natural reafon wrought up to perfection by ftudy. It ferves in compofition to guide and direct the understanding. It makes ufe of the imagination, but without fubmitting to it, and keeps it always in fub jection. It confults nature univerfally, follows it ftep by step, and is a faithful image of it. Referved and fparing in the midft of abundance and riches, it difpenfes the beauties and graces of difcourfe with temper and wildom. It never fuffers itself to be dazzled with the falfe, how glittering a figure foever it may make. 'Tis equally offended with too much and two little. It knows precifely where it muft ftop, and cuts off, without regret or mercy, whatever exceeds the beautiful and perfect. 'Tis the want of this quality which occafions the various fpecies of bad style; as bombaft, conceit, and witticifm; in which, as Quintilian fays, the genius is void of judgment, and fuffers itfelf to be carried away with an appearance of beauty, quoties ingenium judicio caret,& fpecie boni fal

litur.

Tafte, fimple and uniform in its principle, is varied and multiplied an infinite number of ways, yet fo as under a thoufand different forms, in profe or verfe, in a declamatory or concife, fublime or fim ple, jocofe or ferious ftyle, 'tis always the

fame, and carries with it a certain charac ter of the true and natural, immediately perceived by all perfons of judgment. We cannot fay the ftyle of Terence, Phædrus, Salluft, Cæfar, Tully, Livy, Virgil, and Horace, is the fame. And yet they have all, if I may be allowed the expreffion, a certain tincture of a common fpirit, which in that diverfity of genius and style makes an affinity between them, and a fenfible difference alfo betwixt them and the other writers, who have not the ftamp of the beft age of antiquity upon them.

I have already faid, that this diftinguishing faculty was a kind of natural reason wrought up to perfection by ftudy. In reality all men bring the first principles of tafte with them into the world, as well as thofe of rhetoric and logic. As a proof of this, we may urge, that every good orator is almost always infallibly approved of by the people, and that there is no difference of tafte and fentiment upon this point, as Tully obferves, between the ignorant and

the learned.

The cafe is the fame with mufic and painting. A concert, that has all its parts well compofed and well executed, both as to inftruments and voices, pleases univerfally. But if any difcord arifes, any ill tone of voice be intermixed, it shall dif. pleafe even those who are abfolutely ignorant of mufic. They know not what it is that offends them, but they find fomewhat grating in it to their ears. And this pro ceeds from the taste and fenfe of harmony implanted in them by nature. In like manner a fine picture charms and tranf ports a fpectator, who has no idea of painting. Afk him what pleases him, and why it pleafes him, and he cannot easily give an account, or specify the real reafons; but natural fentiment works almost the fame effect in him as art and ufe in connoiffeurs.

The like obfervation will hold good as to the tafte we are here fpeaking of. Mot men have the first principles of it in themfelves, though in the greater part of them they lie dormant in a manner, for want of inftruction or reflection; as they are often ftifled or corrupted by a vicious education, bad cuftoms, or reigning prejudices of the age and country.

But how depraved foever the taste may be, it is never abfolutely loft. There are certain fixed remains of it, deeply rooted in the understanding, wherein all men agree. Where thefe fecret feeds are cul

tivated

tivated with care, they may be carried to a far greater height of perfection. And if it fo happens, that any fresh light awakens these firit notions, and renders the mind attentive to the immutable rules of truth and beauty, fo as to discover the patural and neceffary confequences of them, and ferves at the fame time for a model to facilitate the application of them; we generally fee, that men of the best fenfe gladly caft off their ancient errors, correct the mistakes of their former judgments, and return to the juftnefs, and delicacy, which are the effects of a refined tafte, and by degrees draw others after them into the fame way of thinking.

To be convinced of this, we need only look upon the fuccefs of certain great orators and celebrated authors, who by their natural talents have recalled thefe primitive ideas, and given fresh life to thefe feeds, which lie concealed in the mind of every man. In a little time they united the voices of thofe, who made the beft ufe of their reafon, in their favour; and foon after gained the applaufe of every age and condition, both ignorant and learned. It would be eafy to point out amongst us the date of the good tafte, which now reigns in all arts and fciences; by tracing each up to its original, we fhould fee that a fmall number of men of genius have acquired the nation this glory and advantage.

Even thofe, who live in the politer ages, without any application to learning or ftudy, do not fail to gain fome tincture of the prevailing good taite, which has a fhare, without their perceiving it themfelves, in their converfation, letters, and behaviour. There are few of our foldiers at prefent, who would not write more correctly and elegantly than Ville-Hardouin, and the other officers who lived in a ruder and more barbarous age.

From what I have faid, we may conclude, that rules and precepts may be laid down for the improvement of this difcerning faculty; and I cannot perceive why Quintilian, who juftly fets fuch a value upon it, should say that it is no more to be obtained by art than the tafte or fmell; Non magis arte traditur, quam guftus aut edor; unless he meant, that fome perfons are fo ftupid, and have fo little ufe of their judgment, as might tempt one to believe that it was in reality the gift of nature alone.

Neither do I think that Quintilian is

abfolutely in the right in the inftance he produces, at leaft with refpect to tafte. We need only imagine what paffes in certain nations, in which long custom has introduced a fondness for certain odd and extravagant dishes. They readily commend good liquors, elegant food, and good cookery. They foon learn to difcern the delicacy of the feasoning, when a skilful mas ter in that way has pointed it out to them, and to prefer it to the groffness of their former diet. When I talk thus, I would not be underflood to think thofe nations had great caufe to complain for the want of knowledge and ability in what is become fo fatal to us. But we may judge from hence the refemblance there is between the taste of the body and mind, and how proper the first is to defcribe the characters of the fecond.

The good talle we fpeak of, which is that of literature, is not limited to what we call the fciences, but extends itfelf imperceptibly to other arts, fuch as architecture, painting, fculpture, and mufic. 'Tis the fame difcerning faculty which introduces univerfally the fame elegance, the fame fymmetry, and the fame order in the difpofition of the parts; which inclines us to a noble fimplicity, to natural beauties, and a judicious choice of ornaments. On the other hand, the depravation of taste in arts has been always a mark and confequence of the depravation of tafte in literature. The heavy, confused, and grofs ornaments of the old Gothic buildings, placed ufually without elegance, contrary to all good rules, and out of all true proportions, were the image of the writings of the authors of the fame age.

The good tafte of literature reaches alfo to public cuftoms and the manner of living. An habit of confulting the best rules upon one fubject, naturally leads to the doing it alfo upon others. Paulus Æmilius, whofe genius was fo univerfally extenfive, having made a great fealt for the entertainment of all Greece upon the conqueft of Macedon, and obferving that his guefts looked upon it as conducted with more elegance and art than might be expected from a foldier, told them they were much in the wrong to be furprised at it; for the fame genius, which taught how to draw up an army to advantage, naturally pointed out the proper difpofition of a table.

But by a frange, though frequent revolution, which isone great proof of the

weakness,