im in his writings. Of all expreffions, thofe, which, together with their other meaning, imply a degree either of blame or approbation, are the leaft liable to be perverted or mistaken.

IT is natural for us to feek a Standard of Tafte; a rule, by which the va-. rious fentiments of men may be reconciled; or at least, a decifion afforded, confirming one fentiment, and condemning another.

THERE is a fpecies of philofophy, which cuts off all hopes of fuccefs in fuch an attempt, and reprefents the impoffibility of ever attaining any standard of taste. The difference, it is faid, is very wide between judgment and fentiment. All fentiment is right; because fentiment has a reference to nothing beyond itfelf, and is always real, wherever a man is confcious of it. But all determinations of the understanding are not right; because they have a reference to fomething beyond themselves, to wit, real matter of fact; and are not always conformable to that ftandard. Among a thousand different opinions which different men may entertain of the fame fubject, there is one, and but one, that is juft and true; and the only difficulty is to fix and afcertain it. On the contrary, a thousand different fentiments, excited by the fame object, are all right: Because no fentiment reprefents what is really in the object. It only marks a certain conformity or relation betwixt the object and the organs or faculties of the mind; and if that conformity did not really exift, the fentiment could never poffibly have a being. Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exifts merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One perfon may even perceive deformity, where another is fenfible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiefce in his own fentiment, without pretending to regulate thofe of others. To feek the real beauty, or real deformity is as fruitless an enquiry, as to pretend to ascertain the real fweet or real bitter. According to the difpofition of the organs, the fame object may be both fweet and bitter; and the proverb has juftly determined it to be fruitless to difpute concerning taftes. It is very natural, and even quite neceffary, to extend this axiom to mental, as well as bodily taste; and thus common fenfe, which is fo often at variance with philofophy, especially with the fceptical kind, is found, in one inftance at least, to agree in pronouncing the same

decifion.

BUT though this axiom, by paffing into a proverb, feems to have attained the fanction of common fenfe; there is certainly a fpecies of common fenfe which oppofes it, or at least serves to modify and restrain it. Whoever would affert an equality of genius and elegance betwixt OGILBY and MILTON, or BUNYAN and ADDISON, would be thought to defend no lefs an extravagance, than if he had maintained a molehill to be as high as TENERIFFE, or a pond as extensive as the ocean. Tho' there may be found perfons, who give the preference to the former authors; no one pays attention to fuch a tafte; and we pronounce without fcruple the fentiment of these pretended critics to be abfurd and ridiculous. The principle of the natural equality of taftes is then totally forgot; and while we admit of it on fome occafions, where the objects feem near an equality, it appears an extravagant paradox, or rather a palpable abfurdity, where objects fo difproportioned are compared together. It is evident, that none of the rules of compofition are fixed by reasonings a priori, or can be esteemed abstract conclufions of the understanding, from comparing thofe habitudes and relations of ideas, which are eternal and immutable.

Their foundation is the fame with that of all the practical fciences, experience; nor are they any thing but general obfervations, concerning what has been univerfally found to please in all countries and in all ages. Many of the beauties of poetry and even of eloquence are founded on falfhood and fiction, on hyperboles, metaphors, and an abuse or perverfion of expreffions from their natural meaning. To check the fallies of the imagination, and to reduce every expreffion to geometrical truth and exactness, would be the most contrary to the laws of criticism; because it would produce a work, which, by univerfal experience, has been found the most infipid and disagreeable. But tho' poetry can never fubmit to exact truth, it must be confined by rules of art, difcovered to the author either by genius or observation. If fome negligent or irregular writers have pleased, they have not pleased by their tranfgreffions of rule or order, but in fpite of thefe tranfgreffions: They have poffeffed other beauties, which were conformable to just criticifm; and the force of thefe beauties has been able to overpower cenfure, and give the mind a fatisfaction fuperior to the difguft arifing from the blemishes. ARIOSTO pleases; but not by his monftrous and improbable fictions, by his bizarre mixture of the serious and comic ftyles, by the want of coherence in his ftories, or by the continual interruptions of his narration. He charms by the force and clearness of his expreffion, by the readiness and variety of his inventions, and by his natural pictures of the paffions, especially those of the gay and amorous kind: And however his faults may diminish our fatisfaction, they are not able entirely to destroy it. Did our pleasure really arife from those parts of his poem, which we denominate faults, this would be no objection to criticism in general: It would only be an objection to those particular rules of criticism, which would eftablish fuch circumstances to be faults, and would reprefent them as univerfally blameable. If they are found to please, they cannot be faults; let the pleasure, which they produce, be ever fo unexpected and unaccountable.

BUT though all the general rules of art are founded only on experience and on the observation of the common fentiments of human nature, we must not imagine, that, on every occafion, the feelings of men will be conformable to thefe rules. Those finer emotions of the mind are of a very tender and delicate nature, and require the concurrence of many favorable circumftances to make them play with facility and exactness, according to their general and established principles. The leaft exterior hindrance to fuch fmall fprings, or the leaft internal diforder, difturbs their motion, and confounds the operation of the whole machine. When we would make an experiment of this nature, and would try the force of any beauty or deformity, we must choose with care a proper time and place, and bring the fancy to a fuitable fituation and difpofition. A perfect ferenity of mind, a recollection of thought, a due attention to the object; if any of these circumstances be wanting our experiment will be fallacious, and we fhall be unable to judge of the catholic and univerfal beauty. The relation, which nature has placed betwixt the form and the fentiment, will at leaft be more obfcure; and it will require greater accuracy to trace and difcern it. We fhall be able to ascertain its influence not fo much from the operation of each particular beauty, as from the durable admiration, which attends thofe works, that have furvived all the caprices of mode and fashion, all the miftakes of ignorance and envy. T

THE

THE fame HOMER, who pleafed at ATHENS and ROME two thousand years ago, is still admired at PARIS and at LONDON. All the changes of climate, government, religion, and language have not been able to obfcure his glory. Authority or prejudice may give a temporary vogue to a bad poet or orator; but his reputation will never be durable or general. When his compofitions are examined by pofterity or by foreigners, the enchantment is diffipated, and his faults appear in their true colors. On the contrary, a real genius, the longer his works endure, and the more wide they are spread, the more fincere is the admiration which he meets with. Envy and jealoufy have too much place in a narrow circle; and even familiar acquaintance with his perfon may diminish the applaufe due to his performances: But when these obftructions are removed, the beauties, which are naturally fitted to excite agreeable sentiments, immediately display their energy; and while the world endures, they maintain their authority over the minds of men.

Ir appears then, that amidst all the variety and caprices of tafte, there are certain general principles of approbation or blame, whofe influence a careful eye may trace in all operations of the mind. Some particular forms or qualities, from the original structure of the internal fabric, are calculated to please, and others to difplease; and if they fail of their effect in any particular inftance, it is from fome apparent defect or imperfection in the organ. A man in a fever would not infift on his palate as able to decide concerning flavors; nor would one, affected with the jaundice, pretend to give a verdict with regard to colors. In each creature, there is a found and a defective state; and the former alone can be supposed to afford us a true ftandard of taste and fentiment. If in the found state of the organs, there be an entire or a confiderable uniformity of fentiment among men, we may thence derive an idea of the perfect and univerfal beauty; in like manner as the appearance of objects in day-light to the eye of a man in health is denominated their true and real color, even while color is allowed to be merely a phantafm of the fenfes.

MANY and frequent are the defects in the internal organs, which prevent or weaken the influence of thofe general principles, on which depends our fentiment of beauty or deformity. Tho' fome objects, by the structure of the mind, be naturally calculated to give pleasure, it is not to be expected, that in every individual the pleasure will be equally felt. Particular incidents and fituations occur, which either throw a falfe light on the objects, or hinder the true from conveying to the imagination the proper fentiment and perception.

ONE Obvious caufe, why many feel not the proper fentiment of beauty, is the want of that delicacy of imagination, which is requifite to convey a fenfibility of thofe finer emotions. This delicacy every one pretends to: Every one talks of it; and would reduce every kind of taste or fentiment to its ftandard. But as our intention in this differtation is to mingle fome light of the understanding with the feelings of fentiment, it will be proper to give a more accurate definition of delicacy, than has hitherto been attempted. And not to draw our philosophy from too profound a fource, we fhall have recourfe to a noted story in Don QUIXOTE.

Tis with good reason, fays SANCHO to the fquire with the great nose, that I pretend to have a judgment in wine: This is a quality hereditary in our family.

Two

Two of my kinfmen were once called to give their opinion of a hogfhead, which was fuppofed to be excellent, being old and of a good vintage. One of them tastes it; confiders it, and after mature reflection pronounces the wine to be good, were it not for a small tafte of leather, which he perceived in it. The other, after using the fame precautions, gives alfo his verdict in favor of the wine; but with the reserve of a taste of iron, which he could easily distinguish. You cannot imagire how much they were both ridiculed for their judgment. But who laughed in the end? On emptying the hogshead, there was found at the bottom, an old key with a leathern thong tied to it.

THE great refemblance between mental and bodily tafte will eafily teach us to apply this story. Tho' it be certain, that beauty and deformity, no more than sweet and bitter, are not qualities in objects, but belong entirely to the fentiment, internal or external; it must be allowed, that there are certain qualities in objects, which are fitted by nature to produce those particular feelings. Now as these qualities may be found in a small degree or may be mixed and confounded with each other, it often happens, that the tafte is not affected with fuch minute qualities, or is not able to diftinguish all the particular flavors, amidst the disorder, in which they are prefented. Where the organs are fo fine, as to allow nothing to escape them; and at the fame time fo exact as to perceive every ingredient in the compofition: This we call delicacy of tafte, whether we employ thefe terms in the natural or metaphorical fenfe. Here then the general rules of beauty are of use; being drawn from established models, and from the observation of what pleases or difpleafes, when presented fingly and in a high degree: And if the fame qualities, in a continued compofition and in a fmaller degree, affect not the organs with a fenfible delight or uneafinefs, we exclude the perfon from all pretensions to this delicacy. To produce thefe general rules or avowed patterns of compofition is like finding the key with the leathern thong; which juftified the verdict of SANCHO's kinfmen, and confounded those pretended judges, who had condemned them. Tho' the hogfhead had never been emptied, the tafte of the one was still equally delicate, and that of the other equally dull and languid: But it would have been more difficult to have proved the fuperiority of the former, to the conviction of every by-stander. In like manner, tho' the beauties of writing had never been methodized, or reduced to general principles; tho' no excellent models had ever been acknowleged; the different degrees of tafte would ftill have fubfifted, and the judgment of one man been preferable to that of another; but it would not have been so easy to filence the bad critic, who might always infift upon his particular fentiment, and refuse to submit to his antagonist. But when we show him an avowed principle of art; when we illuftrate this principle by examples, whose operation, from his own particular take, he acknowleges to be conformable to the principle; when we prove, that the fame principle may be applied to the present cafe, where he did not perceive nor feel its influence: He must conclude, upon the whole, that the fault lies in himself, and that he wants the delicacy, which is requifite to make him fenfible of every beauty and every blemish, in any compofition or difcourfe.

'Tis acknowleged to be the perfection of every sense or faculty, to perceive with exactness its moft minute objects, and allow nothing to escape its notice and obfervation. The smaller the objects are, which become fenfible to the eye, the

finer is that organ, and the more elaborate its make and compofition. A good palate is not tried by ftrong flavors; but by a mixture of fmall ingredients, where we are ftill fenfible of each part, notwithstanding its minutenefs and its confufion with the rest. In like manner, a quick and acute perception of beauty and deformity must be the perfection of our mental tafte, nor can a man be fatisfied. with himself, while he fufpects, that any excellence or blemish in a difcourfe has paffed him unobferved. In this cafe, the perfection of the man, and the perfection of the fenfe or feeling, are found to be united. A very delicate palate, on many occafions, may be a great inconvenience both to a man himself and to his friends; but a delicate tafte of wit or beauty must always be a desirable quality, because it is the fource of all the fineft and most innocent enjoyments, of which human nature is fufceptible. In this decifion the fentiments of all mankind are agreed. Wherever you can fix or ascertain a delicacy of taste, it is fure to be approved of; and the best way of fixing it is to appeal to those models and principles, which have been established by the uniform approbation and experience of nations and ages.

BUT tho' there be naturally a very wide difference in point of delicacy between one perfon and another, nothing tends further to encrease and improve this talent, than practice in a particular art, and the frequent furvey or contemplation of a particular fpecies of beauty. When objects of any kind are firft prefented to the eye or imagination, the fentiment, which attends them, is obfcure and confused: and the mind is, in a great measure, incapable of pronouncing concerning their merits or defects. The tafte cannot perceive the feveral excellencies of the performance; much lefs diftinguifh the particular character of each excellency, and afcertain its quality and degree. If it pronounce the whole in general to be beautiful or deformed, 'tis the utmost which can be expected; and even this judgment a perfon, fo unpractifed, will be apt to deliver with great hesitation and referve. But allow him to acquire experience in thofe objects, his feeling becomes more exact and nice: He not only perceives the beauties and defects of each part, but marks the distinguishing species of each quality, and affigns it fuitable praise or blame. A clear and diftinct fentiment attends him through the whole furvey of the objects; and he difcerns that very degree and kind of approbation or difpleasure, which each part is naturally fitted to produce. The mift diffipates, which feemed formerly to hang over the object: The organ acquires greater perfection in its operations; and can pronounce, without danger of mistake, concerning the merits of each performance. In a word, the fame addrefs and dexterity, which practice gives to the execution of any work, is also acquired, by the fame means, in the judging of it.

So advantageous is practice to the difcernment of beauty, that before we can pronounce judgment on any work of importance, it will even be requifite, that that very individual performance be more than once perused by us, and be furveyed in different lights, with attention and deliberation. There is a flutter or hurry of thought, which attends the firft perufal of any piece, and which confounds the genuin fentiment of beauty. The reference of the parts is not discerned: The true characters of ftyle are little diftinguished: The feveral perfections and defects feem wrapped up in a species of confufion, and present themselves indiftinctly to the imagination. Not to mention, that there is a fpecies of beauty, which,

as