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ESSAY I.

OF THE DELICACY

OF THE DELICACY OF TASTE AND PASSION.

S

COME People are subject to a certain delicacy of paffion, which makes them extremely fenfible to all the accidents of life, and gives them a lively joy upon every profperous event, as well as a piercing grief, when they meet with misfortunes and adverfity. Favors and good offices eafily engage their friendship; while the fmalleft injury provokes their refentment. Any honor or mark of diftinction elevates them above measure; but they are as fenfibly touched with contempt. People of this character have, no doubt, much more lively enjoyments, as well as more pungent forrows, than men of cool and fedate tempers: But, I believe, when every thing is balanced, there is no one, who would not rather chufe to be of the latter character, were he entirely master of his own difpofition. Good or ill fortune is very little at our own difpofal: And when a perfon, that has this fenfibility of temper, meets with any misfortune, his forrow or refentment takes intire poffeffion of him, and deprives him of all relish in the common occurrences of life; of which the right enjoyment forms the greatest part of our happiness. Great pleasures are much lefs frequent than great pains; fo that a fenfible temper muft meet with fewer trials in the former way than in the latter. Not to mention, that men of fuch lively paffions are apt to be tranfported beyond all bounds of prudence and difcretion, and to take false steps in the conduct of life, which are often irretrievable.

THERE is a delicacy of tafte obfervable in fome men, which very much refembles this delicacy of paffion, and produces the fame fenfibility to beauty and deformity of every kind, as that does to profperity and adverfity, obligations and injuries. When you prefent a poem or a picture to a man poffeffed of this talent, the delicacy of his feeling, makes him be touched very fenfibly with every part of it; nor are the mafterly ftrokes perceived with more exquifite relifh and fatisfaction, than the negligences or abfurdities with difguft and uneafiness. A polite and judicious converfation affords him the highest entertainment; rudeness or impertinence is as great a punishment to him. In fhort, delicacy of taste has the fame effect as delicacy of paffion: It enlarges the fphere both of our happiness. and mifery, and makes us fenfible to pains as well as pleasures, which escape the reft of mankind.

I BELIEVE, however, there is no one, who will not agree with me, that notwithstanding this resemblance, a delicacy of tafte is as much to be defired and cultivated as a delicacy of paffion is to be lamented, and to be remedied, if poffible. The good or ill accidents of life are very little at our difpofal; but we are pretty much masters what books we fhall read, what diverfions we shall partake of, and what company we fhall keep. Philofophers have endeavored to render happiness entirely independent of every thing external. That is impoffible to be attained: But every wife man will endeavor to place his happiness on fuch objects as depend moft upon himself; and that is not to be attained fo much by any other means as by this delicacy of fentiment. When a man is poffeffed of that talent, he is more happy by what pleases his tafte, than by what gratifies his appetites, and receives more enjoyment from a poem or a piece of reasoning than the most expenfive luxury can afford.

How far delicacy of tafte, and that of paffion, are connected together in the original frame of the mind, it is hard to determine. To me there appears a very confiderable connexion betwixt them. For we may obferve that women, who have more delicate paffions than men, have also a more delicate taste of the ornaments of life, of drefs, equipage, and the ordinary decencies of behavior. Any excellency in thefe hits their tafte much fooner than ours; and when you please their tafte, you foon engage their affections.

But whatever connection there may be originally betwixt thefe difpofitions, I am perfuaded, that nothing is fo proper to cure us of this delicacy of paffion, as the cultivating of that higher and more refined tafte, which enables us to judge of the characters of men, of compofitions of genius, and of the productions of the nobler arts. A greater or lefs relifh of thofe obvious beauties which strike the fenfes, depends entirely upon the greater or lefs fenfibility of the temper: But, with regard to the fciences and liberal arts, a fine tafte is, in fome measure, the fame with ftrong fenfe, or at leaft depends fo much upon it, that they are infeparable. To judge aright of a compofition of genius, there are fo many views to be taken in, fo many circumstances to be compared, and fuch a knowledge of human nature requifite, that no man, who is not poffeffed of the foundeft judgment, will ever make a tolerable critic in fuch performances. And this is a new reason for cultivating a relish in the liberal arts. Our judgment will strengthen by this exercife: We fhall form jufter notions of life: Many things, which please or afflict others, will appear to us too frivolous to engage our attention: And we shall lofe by degrees that fenfibility and delicacy of paffion, which is fo incommodious. BUT perhaps I have gone too far in faying, That a cultivated tafte for the polite arts extinguishes the paffions, and renders us indifferent to thofe objects which are fo fondly pursued by the reft of mankind. On farther reflection, I find, that it rather improves our fenfibility for all the tender and agreeable paffions; at the same time that it renders the mind incapable of the rougher and more boisterous emotions.

Ingenuas didiciffe fideliter artes,
Emollit mores, nec finit effe feros.

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DELICACY OF TASTE.

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For this, I think there may be affigned two very natural reasons. In the first place, nothing is fo improving to the temper as the study of the beauties, either of poetry, eloquence, mufick, or painting. They give a certain elegance of fentiment, to which the reft of mankind are entire ftrangers. The emotions they excite are soft and tender. They draw the mind off from the hurry of bufinefs and interest; cherish reflection; difpofe to tranquillity; and produce an agreeable melancholy, which, of all difpofitions of the mind, is the best fuited to love and friendship.

In the fecond place, a delicacy of tafte is favorable to love and friendship, by confining our choice to few people, and making us indifferent to the company and conversation of the greatest part of men. You will very feldom find, that mere men of the world, whatever ftrong fenfe they may be endowed with, are very nice in diftinguishing of characters, or in marking thofe infenfible differences and gradations which make one man preferable to another. Any one, that has competent fenfe, is fufficient for their entertainment: They talk to him, of their pleafure and affairs, with the fame frankness as they would to another; and finding many, who are fit to fupply his place, they never feel any vacancy or want in his abfence. But to make ufe of the allufion of a celebrated FRENCH author, the judgment may be compared to a clock or watch, where the most ordinary machine is fufficient to tell the hours; but the most elaborate and artificial can only point out the minutes and feconds, and diftinguish the smallest differences of time. One that has well digested his knowlege both of books and men, has little enjoyment but in the company of a few felect companions. He feels too fenfibly, how much all the reft of mankind fall fhort of the notions which he has entertained. And, his affections being thus confined within a narrow circle, no wonder he carries them further than if they were more general and undistinguished. The gaiety and frolic of a bottle-companion improves with him into a folid friendship; And the ardours of a youthful appetite become an elegant paffion.

* Monf. FONTENELLE, Pluralité des Mondes. Soir 6.

ESSAY