CLIO: O R, A DISCOURSE O N TASTE. ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY. By I. U. The SECOND EDITION, With large ADDITIONS. LONDON, Printed for T. D A v i E s, in Ruflel-ftreet, Covent- Garden. M DCC LXIX. A/7S" ' P R E F A C E. FROM the time Mr. Locke prov- ed that there were no innate principles, or rules to direct the actions of men, imprinted on the mind, tafte, morality, and confcience were fuppofed by many perfons of learning, particularly by all the confident fol- lowers of the modern philofophy, to have no determined foundation in na- ture, but cuftom, or elfe the apparent interefts of men, difcovered by invefti- gation and comparifon of effects. There appeared in that philofophy but one common firft motive, or fource of A 2 deter- iv PREFACE. determination and action to man and brute ; and the human divine mind was only confidered, as endued with a greater capacity, or with a fupe- riority in degree, but not in kind. Of thefe confequences, fcepticifm, infide- lity, and materialifm, made advan- tages, which probably Mr. Locke did not forefee ; or could not, confident with his general hypothecs, avoid. Although it be demonftrable, that man has no innate rules of actions im- printed on his memory, yet can we agree, that he has no innate feeling of the facred character of truth and rectitude of heart, no fenfe of beauty, no infelt diftinction between the bale and the generous, which ought by . philofophers to be fubftituted to the innate principles which Mr. Locke juftly PREFACE, v juftly difcarded ? The uniformity of thej udgments of mankind throughout all ages, and the ftrong involuntary fen- timents we all feel in the prefence of virtue and beauty, prove that we have fome ftandard of approbation in the mind ; and that for want of acknowledg- ing it publickly, there is an hiatus or chafm left in philofophy, thro' which infidelity, ever retllefs, and ever feek- ing for fecurity, creeps into feeming fafety and peace. In the following lines, I attempt to fhew feveral taftes that grow up with the human mind, and are found in every part of the fpecies that are not evidently imperfect. To this general proportion in the firft edition of Clio, was objected, The variety of wens opinions and tajles, copyed from Locke and A 3 Mande- vi PREFACE. Mandeville, in order to prove that men have no fixed tafte or direction of mind. The critic evidently had not an idea of the nature of evidence or proof, for even allowing his excep- tions to be good, he ought only to conclude that there were limits to the natural taftes of men-, for indifputably if the inflances I produced of tafte be univerfal, then mankind have fo far a fixed univerfal tafte. The method, and indeed the only method of over- turning my pofition is, to fhew that the inftances I produce of univeral tafte are not in truth common to all ages and nations ; or that, although they be univerfal, yet that men came by fome other means to agree to them, and not by mere natural fentiment. The PREFACE. ylt The objection I jufl mentioned, obliged me in this edition to make the diuinction between things that pleafe us by their native beauty, and thofe other objects that are naturally indifferent or difgufting ; and yet that come into value and reputation on ac- count of an afTociation they happen to be in with original beauty. I will take this opportunity of adding a re- flection or two, to what is faid on this fubject in the body of the work. The partition made by this diftinction ob- vioufiy accounts for, and reconciles, the remarkable ftedfaftnefs of the judg- ments of men in all ages in fome mat- ters, and the ftrange fluctuation in theirjudgments concerning other mat- ters. Objects pofleflfed of native or unborrowed beauty taken feparately, always pleafe us, while our organs are A 4 noc viii PREFACE. not indifpofed ; but the efteem men fometimes have for things naturally indifferent or difgufting, is only acci- dental, and their judgments concern- ing them muft change, as the mode or fafhion of afibciation varies. The ori- ginal caufe of uniting ideas that are found fo clofely connected as not to be eafily feparated, is often unknown ; and in fuch cafe, people are aftray about the principle that guides their preferences. If we could trace the beginnings of afibciations, we fhould no doubt be able to point out the means by which the feveral fantaftic modes of beauty came into efteem, as clearly as perfons acquainted with hiftory can tell us, why a neck a little awry was graceful in the camp of Alexander, and why a prominent hoop-petticoat was a genteel part of drefs PREFACE. ix drefs in the court of our virgin Eliza- beth. Now, if agreeable to the import of this little difcourfe, man without in- nate principles or rules of action im- printed on the mind, be .enlightened and directed by innate fentiments, or intellectual taftes, then he has fome fixed boundaries of judgment, fome fpring-headsof reaibning; he isfingled"/ out and difdnguimed from the brute by fomething more than mere capa- city •, he is born to involuntary appro- bations and duties, and the impor- tant philofo£hy ofhuman .nature hath ; a fettled firm foundation. I thought proper to mention this confequence, that the matter here prefented to the public may be difcuficd with the at- tention and accuracy it deferves : my general x PREFACE. general view is, that the human mind after being neglected by the modern philofophy, may be reftored to the rank due to its importance in learning, and that this rich and fruitful pro- vince may once more become the ob- ject of curiofity and enquiring genius. 1 added the dialogue at the end, be- caufe I had a mind to make fome re- flections on the influence the Chriftian religion naturally has on the fine arts, and dialogue admits of rambling thoughts better than any other fpecies of writing. I am fenfible, that in a converfation between a gentleman and a lady, witty things are generally ex- pected ; but my reader will not find a fingle bon mot in this converfation. The Dean has no character, but that of a man who has attentively confi- dered PREFACE. 3*1 dered human nature, and the genius of Chriftianity ; and Amelia is a lady of a very common character in life 5 fhe is religious, an admirer of virtue, and a lover of liberty. I am not pofi- tive that my thoughts on fociety and religion will not difguft feveral of my readers •, but let me obferve on my own behalf, that I did not write for the croud. I offer my reflections to the few who are willing to beftow a thought now and then on their own minds, and take a fedate view of that piclure, which it is the great art of life to hide from ourfelves, as well as from the world : if others read them, and take offence, I can't help it. Thofe who require their paflions to be flattered, may very well throw afide this trifle; they have labourers enough 4 *ii PREFACE. at work for them, gentle authors, who politely confider the humour of the public before they write, and ne- ver put pen to paper before they cal- culate the number of their buyers. I have nothing to add about the ex- ecution of the work, but to acknow- ledge its faults and imperfections : it is often obfcure, either thro' brevity or an ill choice of expreflion. The parts were wrote feparate and loofe, and they remain fo flill ; they appear yet to be only materials collected and thrown rudely together ; confequently they leave not on the mind the full ftrong imprefiion of a fingle whole and regular plan. If I be aiked why I did not digeft them better? I anfwer, that I am not obliged to do fo, while I have PREFACE. xiii have other objects that require my time and attention. However imper- fect this little piece be, I think it of ibme value, which is a fufficient apo- logy for publifhing it. If I lay open, my fields, I am not bound to im- prove them, although improvements would add confiderably to the plea- iure of the walk, and to the variety of the proiped ON". CONTENTS. Page l.'T'ASTE defined 2 II. Particular inflances of tmiverfal tcfie 5 to 14 •III. The confufan of men in their judgments of the leauty and excellence of the works of art and nature confulered and accounted for 14 ft 36 IV. Why the common people are not grace- fnl~ although the graceful and becoming are always natural 38 to 45 V. Thoughts on elegance 45 to 74 "VI. *••" en perfonal beauty 74 to 83 VII. »—•- — on converfation 83/091 VIII. — — — on writing 91 to 149 XX. — - — on mufec 149 to 155 X. — — on fculpture and paint- ing 156/0 164 XL — ••— • on architec~lure 164 XII. Thoughts CONTENTS. XII. Thoughts on colours andlight 1 65 t o 1 67 XIII. on uniformity 167 to 170 XIV. on novelty I JO to 171 XV. • on the origin of our general ideas of beauty 172 to 177 XVI. Senfe, tajiey and genius dijiin- guijhed 177 to 184 XVII. Thoughts on the human capa- city 184 to 1 86 XVIII. To/let how depraved and loft 1 86 to 188 XIX. Some reflections on the human mind 188 to 193 XX. Relation of the fine arts to the human mind 1 94 to 20 1 XXI. An attempt to account for the rife of the fine arts in Greece 201 to 215 XXII. The objefl of the fine arts not in this life 215 to 230 XXIII. Influence of Cbrijllanity, and of in- fidelity on the fine arts 230 to 246 O: O R, A DISCOURSE on TASTE, MADAM, WHEN I had the honour of drink- ing tea with you a few days ago, and occafionally read to you Rollin's Ge- neral Reflexions upon what is called Good Tafte, fome obfervations you made brought on a very lively and pleafing con- verfation, in which you opened fo many new profpecls to me upon our fubjecl:, that I had thoughts of reducing my ideas to writing while they continued frem in my memory, and you were pleafed to ap- prove of that • defign. Rollin, you ob- ferved, wrote for young ftudents, and his principal view was to form a tafte for li- B terature. 2 C L I O : o R, A terature. You very gracefully, but in a manner I did not then perceive, led me to that tafte and elegance which diftinguifhes perfons politely educated, and particularly to the graces of your own fex : the tranfi- tion, indeed, from the beauties of writing to the elegance and propriety difplayed in polifhed life, was not great : for the fame Jimple original principles of tafte are com- mon to both, and are varied only accord- ing to characters and their fituations. It is a happy circumftance in my favour, that the fubjecT: itfelf, and your approba- tion of my attempt, confine my thoughts to you ; I have no neceffity, madam, of invoking a mufe to infpire me. The tafte we fpoke of may be defined, at large, a clear fenfe of the noble, the beautiful, and the affecting, through na- ture and art. It diftinguifhes and fele&s, with unerring judgment, what is fine and graceful, from the mean and dilgufting ; and DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 3 and keeping a ftri& and attentive eye on nature, never neglects her, but when na- ture herfelf is in difgrace. All our fpecies that are perfect bring the firft principles of tafte with them into the world. Rollin produces inftances of uni- verfal tafte in mufic and painting : " A concert, fays he, that has all its parts well compofed and well executed, both as to inftruments and voices, pleafes uni- verfally : but if any difcord arifes, any ill tone of voice be intermixed, it (hall dif- pleafe even thofe who are abfolutely igno- rant of mufic. They know not what it is that offends them, but they find fome- what grating in it to their ears ; and this proceeds from the tafte and fenfe of har- mony implanted in them by nature. In like manner a fine picture charms and tranfports a fpeclator who has no idea of painting. Afk him what pleafes him, and why it pleafes him, and he cannot eafily B 2 give 4 CLIOjoR, A give an account, or fpecify the real rea- fon j but natural fentiment works almoft the fame effect in him, as art and ufe in perfect judges." Here you flopped me with a very fub- tile and confounding objection, which became much ftronger by your familiar and fprightly manner of fupporting it : though I did not then make a good figure in oppofition to you, yet now I can ven- ture upon paper to enforce the principle I defended. Your objection was, That whatever pleafes people forms to them a true and agreeable tafte ; and that there- fore there is no fuch thing as univerfal tafte in the beautiful, the fublime, and the affecting ; for that which pleafes one perfon is often difpleafing to another : who then can pretend to judge between mankind, fince no fentence pronounced in this cafe can alter the taftes of men, or make that agreeable to a perfon which dif- DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 5 difgufts him, or the contrary ? Though this obje6lion.be certainly new from you, who have yet no acquaintance with books that treat on the nature of the human mind ; yet it has often been made, very triumphantly, by writers of the greateft reputation, and feems to require a more fatisfaclory folution than has hitherto ap- peared. It is no fmall advantage tome, that the candour of your mind is not deftroyed by what is often called learning. When I produce to you feveral well-known inftances of univerfal invariable beauty, you will without hefitation agree with me, that there is fuch a thing : you will not contend, that mankind want a tafte for that which they all admire. To proceed to particular inftances of this natural fenfe : Every man, who is not an idiot, has a tafle for truth j the moft notorious liar on earth, when taken in a B 3 falfhood 6 CLIO: OR, A falfliood which he hopes to evade, fhall convince you of his own private unalter- able fenfe by his palliations and excufes. The fame thing may be faid of grati- tude ; and though the virtue itfelf be rare, yet no one ever in earnefl acknowledged himfelf to be ungrateful, or would wil- lingly bear that imputation ; which is fuf- ficient evidence that the approbation of the virtue is univerfal. The applaufe we yield to generofity, and our contempt of a very felfifh difpo- iition, is not lefs general, though there feem to be fome objections. Mifers have been known to praife as well as pra<5tife the moft fordid parfimony, and to con- demn generofity j but I believe, upon con- fidering this matter clofely, it will ap- pear that mifers, as well as others, have a fenfe of the merit of generofity ; and find fault with it in others only where it affe&s DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 7 affects nearly or remotely their own in- terefls, or becomes a reproach to them : they condemn liberality where it appears to them to lavifh beyond proper limits. The mifer admits the virtue equally with the generous, but his fears and fufpicions of future want make him confine it with- in a fmall compafs : he parts with his far- thing where a more generous perfon be- ftows a (hilling or a guinea ; yet this farthing extorted from him, is an indubi- table proof that he has fixed a fenfe of liberality, though it be reftrained by fomc mean and felfifh confiderations. Liberty is pleafing, and confinement difguftful to every body. You can walk and breathe freely under a low cieling, what then makes you prefer a loftier chamber ? What makes you, if the wea- ther permit, like the open air beft, and chufe to be bounded only by the horizon, B 4 that 8 CLIO: OR, A that extends in profpeft as far as the eye can reach ? Novelty alfo hath its charms in a thou- fand inftances, that wear away by fami- liarity. All ages and nations have agreed to ad- mire true wit ; it is certain that wittifcifm, pun, mimickry, and buffoonery, have very often fupplied the place of it with ap- plaufe ; but when we confider, that all people who make ufe of falfe wit, not- withftanding admire the true, and approve of itj that they put off the falfe wit al- ways under fome refemblance or appear- ance of real wit ;•- and that thofe who like it are impofed upon juft as men are who take counterfeit coin, becaufe it has the fame impreflion with good money ; and when we further obferve, that thofe very people who ufe falfe wit, as they improve in their tafte and fenfe defpife the falfe and DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 9 and adopt the true ; and that nothing fixes them in a habit of punning and buf- foonery, but an incurable ftupidity, and an inability to act a higher part ; we {hall be obliged to confefs, that true wit hath its boundaries and marks which for ever diftinguifh it. I fhall be obliged to fay fomething of our fenfe of perfonal beauty here- after ; I fhall here content myfelf with making the following obfervation : A perfect beauty always holds the fuperi- ority in the efteem of every one, over re- markable deformity. It is only when the degrees from deformity to beauty ap- proach to each other, or when beauties of different kinds are \compared who hold nearly the fame degree, that we are con- fufed and differ in opinion. Th confufion happens in our tat1 and bittter ; if the fv other, we cannot but 10 C L I O ; O R, A but as beauty is compofed of various prin- ciples, and is more complicated, we are proportionably in greater confufion in our comparifons when the variations are not very remarkable. Grandeur of thought, or grandeur of objects, ftrike us irrefiftibly with furprize and delight. The Grecian and Roman hiflories abound with fplendid inftances of greatnefs of foul j but I have no need to take you from your favourite poet Ho- mer on this head, whofe Iliad is a con- tinued feries of elevating fentiments, and of fublime images that force our admira- tion. Vifible objects of grandeur have afi- milar effect : a large river that throws itfelf down a precipice with unceafmg violence and thunder, never fails to raife a pleafing aftonimment in the beholders. A fum- mer s evening fky caft over with lofty and irregular clouds, dipped in purple and gold, the ocean in ftorms, and a broken profpect: DISCOURSE ON TASTE, n profpect of rocks and mountains irregu- larly piled, affect the mind in the fame However certain what I have been juft faying may be, let us flop here, and fup- pofe that I have been entirely miftaken ; let us fuppofe that there are fome men created without thofe original taftes, or having the very oppofite j that there are men who have a natural tafte and appro- bation of fallhocd and ingratitude; who think a mean and fordid difpofition to be meritorious ; and who difefleem gran- deur and generofity of foul : do you not obferve, that you fuppofe them, by their very natures and difpofitions, the moil contemptible, and debafed animals on earth ? Who, fay you, fliall judge in this cafe, between fuch perfons and ourfelves, fince they have their beauty and their tafte, as well as we ; and the difference is, that they judge things to be agreeablcj which 12 C L I O : OR, A which we judge to be the contrary. But is it not evident, madam, by the very light of fentiment, that it is not upon the judg- ment, or opinions, concerning them, that the merit of truth, gratitude, and genero- fity depend ; but that they have a real va- lue and worth in themfelves, which opi- nion cannot alter ; and that falfehood, in- gratitude, and a fordid, mean temper, have a natural bafenefs, that opinion cannot ennoble. I know no reafon for our per- ception of abfolute eternal beauty in the virtues I have mentioned, but by fupof- ing that the Father of being, who is eter- nal truth and goodnefs, and the original1 ftandard of grandeur and beauty, has ftamped on our minds a fenfe of thofe ab- folute and eternal perfections. If opinion were the real ftandard of fentiment, the nature of one animal could not be more noble than that of any other ; yet it is certain, that if there was in the world but one man of integrity, generofity, gratitude, and DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 13 and a great foul, and all the reft of man- kind confifted of people who had no fenfe of the dignity of truth, and of a noble difpofition, this lingle perfon would be of more worth, than the whole race of man befide. I know the inftances I have juft pro- duced of fixed univerfal tafte common to all the fons of Adam, who are not evi- dently imperfect and void of underftand- ing, are fufficient to convince you that there is fuch a thing as univerfal tafte in the mind of man j and they will prove decifive to every one who has clear con- ceptions of the nature of conviction and evidence. But as I know by experience, that there are abundance of plaufible and even learned men who feldomer conclude from reafon and evidence than they ima- gine, and that learning is not a certain antidote againft the power of prejudice; as I am alfo aware of the favourite fyftem that ftands 14 C L I O : o R, A flands in need of the opinion I contend againft, and the great names that fupport it, I am obliged to enter into a debate of a few pages, that I may leave no objec- tion againft me unanfwered. The truth is, in attempting to refolve your difficulty, I find myfelf caught with- out poifibility of retreat, in a difpute of very old {landing, wherein the combatants, although the greateft philofophers of their refpe&ive ages, have generally flood aloof, and contented themfelves with eftablifhing each his own fide of the queftion with ftrong appearances of truth, without venturing to attack directly the adverfe proofs. The cafe (lands thus : the croud of thofe who have reflected on the fentiments men in all ages entertain of virtue and vice, of beauty and grandeur of thought, have, from the uniformity they difcovered in the judgments of mankind on thefe heads, concluded that there is in DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 15 in the human mind, a determined unalter- able ftandard of judgment, or a fenfe that difcovers the right and juft in morality, in beauty, and the fublime. On the con- trary, Hobbes, Locke, Mandeville, and a cloud of moderns, along with fome an- tients, obferving the different eftimates of fome particular moral a&ions in the different communities of mankind, and the unlimited variety of human fancy in the agreeable works of art and nature, have thence contended, that there is no fixed ftandard in the mind for tafle, in morality, or beauty. There is in the opinions of the learned, as Shakefpeare fays of the fortunes of men, a tide that ebbs and flows without ceafing. At prefent, Mr. Locke's opinion feems to J bear down all oppofition ; yet feveral fouad reafoners have ventured to call it in quef- tion ; they find fomething ftill in the re- markable uniformity and inflexibility of mens judgments on decent or bafe actions, I on X6 C L I O : OR, A on the beautiful and the fublime, that cannot be accounted for but by recur-1 ring to a fixed unalterable ftandard in the mind. To fpeak in the phrafe of fome free-thinkers, they perceive by the inter- nal fenfe, natures and differences that appear as immoveable as fate. The mo- ment they caft an eye on Homer or Milton, on the antient ftatues, and the paintings of Raphael ; or the finer paint- ings of nature, the flowers, the waving corn, and meadows, a varied profpedT:, or the fublime beauties of the night, they find all the obje&ions againft real beauty baffled, and overwhelmed by intuition. And I fancy the moft pofitive philofo- phers, who derive our approbations from mode or cuftom, would hefitate a little, if writers were to be judged by their principles ; if they were told that Homer and Martial, Milton and Tom Brown, are on the fame footing in real excellency; and thai the beauties of the heroic poets DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 17 are not the object of any certain or uni- verfal tafte in the foul, but of a favour- able mode of thinking that eafually ob- tained in the world. Of all thofe whom I have to contend with, Mandeville, the author of the Fa- ble of the Bees, makes the clofeft attack upon intrinfic beauty, and feems to deny, with the greateft plaufibility, that there are things pofTefled of fuch real worth and excellence, as to be univerfally efteemed in all countries and ages. As the fucceed- ing writers on his fide of the queftion do little more than copy his objections on this head, I will confider them exprefly, and anfwer at once to the crowd. C{ When we firft fet out in queft of this intrinfic worth, (fays he) and find one thing better than another, and a third better than that, and fo on, we begin to entertain great hopes of fuccefs j but when we meet with federal things that C are i8 C L I Q: OR, A are all very good, or all very bad, we are puzzled, and agree not always with our- felves, much lefs with others. There are different faults as well as beauties, that, as modes and fafliions alter, and men vary in their taftes and humours, will be differently admired or difapproved of. " Judges of painting will never difagree in opinion, when a fine picture is com- pared to the daubing of a novice j but how ftrangely have they differed as to the works of eminent matters ! There are parties amongft connoiffeurs, and few of them agree in their efteern as to ages and countries ; and the beft pictures bear not always the beft prices. A noted original will be ever worth more than any copy that can be made of it by an unknown hand, though it Ihould be better. The value that is fet on paintings depends not only on the name of the matter, and the time of his age he drew them in, but like wife, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 19 likewife, in a greater meafure, on the fcarcity of his works ; and, what is ftill more unreafonable, the quality of the perfons in whofe poffeffion they are, as well as the length of time they have been in great families ; and if the Car- tons, now in Hampton-court, were done by a lefs famous hand than that of Ra- phael, and had a private perfon for their owner, who would be forced to fell them, they would never yield the tenth part of the money, which, with all their grofs faults, they are now fup- pofed to be worth." " In the works of nature, worth and excellency are as uncertain ; and even jn human creatures; what is beautiful in one country, is not fo in another : how whimfical is the florift in his choice ? fometimes the tulip, fometimes the au- ricula, and at other times the carnation, fhall engrofs his efteem j and every year C 2 a new 20 CLIO: OR, A a new flower, in his judgment, exceeds all the old ones, though it is much infe- rior to them both in colour and fhape. Three hundred years ago, men were fliaved as clofely as they are now ; fmce that, they have worn beards, and cut them in a vaft variety of forms, that were all becoming when fafliionable, as now they would be ridiculous. How mean and co- mically a man looks, that is otherwife well drefled, in a narrow-brimmed hat^ when every body wears broad ones ? And again, how monftrous is a great hat, when the other extreme has been in fa- fliion for a confiderable time ? Experience has taught us, that thefe modes feldom laft above ten or twelve years ; and a man of threefcore muft have obferved five ot fix revolutions of them at leaft : yet the beginnings of thefe changes, though we have feen feveral, feem always uncouth, and are offenfive afrefli whenever they return. What mortal can decide which 8 is DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 21 is the handfomeft, abftra&ed from the mode in being, to wear great buttons or fmall ones ? The many ways of laying out a garden judicioufly are almoft innu- merable ; and what is called beautiful in them, varies according to the taftes of nations and ages. In grafs-plats, knots, and parterres, a great diverfity of forms is generally agreeable ; but a round may be as pleaflng to the eye as a fquare ; an oval cannot be more fuitable to one place, than it is poffible for a triangle to be to another : and the pre-eminence an octagon has over an hexagon, is no greater in figures, than at hazard eight has above fix amongft the chances." So far Mr. Mandeville. It is eafily con- ceived, that the arguments which con- clude againft intrinfic worth and excel- lency in the objects of tafte, are equally conclufive againft a fixed determined tafte ; and that, if beauty depends *on mode or cuftom, then the tafte is as va- C 3 riable 22 C L I O J O R, A riable and unfettled as the mode, and has no fixed rules in nature. All the confufion this ingenious and fubtile author has fhewn within the boundaries of beauty, may be taken away, by diftinguifhing between real beauty, that is for ever engaging, and the adjuncts, or habitual aflbciates of beauty, that pleafes us only acciden- tally. If we can (hew this difference in the obje&s that pleafe us, the confufion he has found will clear up. An elderly lady likes the drefs fhe wore in her youth, not becaufe it is really more becoming than the prefent fafliion, but becaufe that drefs bears an intimate relation to her days of joy, and brings them back to her imagination in all the gay colours of that happy feafon of life. In this in- ftanee you will find the nature of thofe mutable charms revealed, that depend upon fancy and the mode. Youth is ever beau- DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 23 beautiful, and cafts a glofly light over all the images of youth, and the drefs only pleafes by its aflbciation. There is, in fa&, no arbitrary beauty j and what are called agreeable of this kind, are only the adj undts or companions that happen accidentally to be joined to real beauty ; and by appear- ing conftantly together, to be united to it in idea, and to pleafe merely by the af- fociation. The mind places in one con- nected complex idea, different things that happen to come to it together ; memory recollects them together ; and a circum- ftance that has conftantly attended on pleafure or pain, will in fome degree re- new thofe fenfations. The prefent fa- fhion, when it becomes familiar, becomes alfo pleafing; that is, it is worn by the young, the gay, and beautiful : the old fafhion, in fome time after it is left off, becomes difagreeable ; that is, it is worn by the morofe, who are out of temper with the engaging part of the world ; C 4 by 24 C L I O : o R, A by the pedantic, the ruftic, and the old. To be convinced that the difguil does not fpring from the Angularity, but from a difagreeable connexion of ideas, let a lovely and elegant nymph or youth fur- prife you in a Chinefe or Turkifh habit, or in a paftoral drefs ; and you will find, that an engaging perfon is capable of giv- ing charms to a new drefs, and making the fimple habit of a fhepherd or fhep- herdefs pleafmg. The black hue and thick lips of the inhabitants of Africa, coniidered apart, have no natural beauty ; but they are united with the fmiles, the dalliances, the kind fentiments, and ten- der endearing paffions in the beauties of Africa; they are united in the fame man- ner on the imagination of the inhabi- tants by habit, and return in one amiable pi&ure to the mind. The Blacks who "have long converfed with Europeans, have alfo found beauty joined to a fair complexion; confequehtly the colour is only DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 25 only beautiful by beinghabitually joined to real beauty. As there are no limits to the adjuncts or circumftances of real beauty, there is an inexhauftible variety in arbi- trary beauty or fafhion. It is the admif- lion of thofe cafual adj uncts, amongft which are comprehended drefs, ceremonies, and furniture, into the fame clafs with things permanently agreeable ; and the confu- fion of them, that have given foundation to objections, and furnifhed examples againft the abfolute nature of beauty, and univerfal unchangeable tafte. When thofe adjuncts are feen alone, they ap- pear indifferent ; and when joined to dif«. agreeable ideas, they become difguftful. When it is faid that good judges have admired blemifhes in works of art, and that nothing is more inconfiftent than fancy, they fay right ; but thofe truths will not bear the conclufions drawn from them : good judges never admired the blemifhes 26 C L I O : OR, A blemifhes feparately, but on account of an aflbciation with fome fuperior beauty, in which they lay fo united and blended, that the imagination took all together as they appeared in afum, and patted a verdict upon the whole in grofs, which if divided, would have been diftinguifhed. I have feen a mole that has looked very pretty in a fine face, becaufe it was unable to caft the leaft dimnefs over the blaze that fur- rounded it, or to make any manner of refiftance to the united force of beauty, that altogether furprifed and overpowered the judgment. The admirers of Homer have idolized his faults, not becaufe they were deftitute of real tafte, but becaufe Homer is upon the whole fo amazingly fine, and his faults are incorporated with fuch infinite and fuperior beauties. If thofe very blemifhes were in works that had no excellencies, or but a few of a low ftile, then they would not impofe thus on the iudgments of men. The DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 27 The fame train of reafoning will help to end the old and great difpute, about the ftability of moral virtue, and a mo- ral fenfe. When it is alleged, that ac- tions called immoral in fome nations are approved of, and even make a part of religious worfhip in another j it may be anfwered, that no nation ever approved of the crimes that are generally reckoned fo, for their own fakes, and taken alone, but on account of an aflbciation with fome- thing of tranfcendent worth and excel- lency. Immoralities have mixed with re- ligion, and were revered on account of the union. Human facrifices were of- fered at Carthage, the rites of Venus ad- mitted lafcivioufnefs, of Bacchus, drunk- ennefs ; and idiots, however vicious, are accounted Saints by Mahometans : but all hiftory teftifies that murder, proftitu- tion, and drunkennefs, taken alone, were v-ices amongft the heathens, and are leoked upon as crimes by the Turks; that they bore 28 C L I O : OR, A bore the fame invariable chara&ers amongft them as with us ; and that even the fan&ion of religion did not alter the landmarks of nature. If you deilre to fee what kept guilty deeds in repute in the heathen worfhip, you muft take into view the fublime majefty and reverence of religion, with which they were incorpo- rated. From what I have faid it appears, that the arguments alleged do not prove againft the unalterable fenfe of virtue and beauty ; fince where you feparate ideas that 'have been cafually aflbciated, the judgments of men of beauty and vir- tue, are ftedfaft and uniform throughout all nations and ages. In our tafte of com- pounds there is an effe£t like what I have been treating of ; if you add a few drops of honey to a large quantity of the juice of wormwood, the whole fhall be bitter : if, on the contrary, you mingle a few drops DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 29 drops of the juice of wormwood in a veflel full of honey, the whole fliall be fweet j yet are neither the honey nor the wormwood changed, and our tafte of fweet and bitter is the fame. In the quotation I made from Man- deville, there are feme other objections that require an anfwer. People may be doubtful and aftray in the theory of beauty, who have the moft exa£t intel- ligence of it in their fenfations, by mif- taking the point of beauty. A flower- garden attracts our view by the fplen- dor and bright confufion of its colours j and we look at it with pleafure, altho' we take no notice of the figure of the parterre; that is, we difcover beauty, without attending to the form and di- vifion of the garden. Florifts then difa- gree about the choice of form in the flower-knots, becaufe the beauty of the objeft of their admiration does not con- fift in that f~m. Flowers, in every ar- range- 30 C L I O : o R, A rangement of the ground, or difperfed ir- regularly by the wild hand of nature, are pleafmg to the eye, like a fine woman, who charms, whether fhe reclines on a fopha, or walks in the garden. There is hardly room for preference between any regular forms of the parterre, befides fancy and aptitude to the place. The theorift then who contends, that there is no pre-determined tafte of beauty in the paffion of florifts, becaufe they differ in the form of flower-gardens, is de- ceived, becaufe he has miftaken the point of beauty, which confifts not in the form of the ground, but in the flowers themfelves. There is a fuppofition that runs thro* Mandeville, and feveral other writers on this fubjedl:, who undoubtedly copy one from the other, that beauty is of one Icind, and differs only in degree ; and therefore, that if there be fuch a thing as real beauty in objects, we can com- pare DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 31 pare it, and always difcover the moft excellent j as men are able, by meafur- ing, to determine the longeft cane, or the higheft fteeple : thence they pro- ceed to conclude, from the confufion of men, and from the variety of their choice and judgment, that there is no real beauty ; whereas, in fair., beauty is an exceeding general term, that comprehends very diftant and various kinds that have no common meafure, and confequently cannot be compared. Pi&ures and fta- tues are like the originals in fuch va- rious clafTes, that their excellencies can- not be meafured with each other. It is as abfurd, perhaps, to compare a good landfkip to a good portrait, as to com- pare a fine profpecl: with a handfome man. Neither can the reciprocal propor- tion of beauty be determined between different characters, even within the fame fpecies. It is probably impoflible to af- certain any rules of judgment, by which the 32 C L I O . o R, A the fuperlority may be determined, be- tween the Apollo of Belvidere and the Venus of Medici : yet this is no argu- ment that their beauties are not real and clearly known ; it only proves, that they are of different kinds. From what I have faid, we may eafily conceive the reafon of the difficulty of determining the fuperiority between Homer and Vir- gil, as poets. If their principal excel- lencies lay in one ' kind j if Virgil's chief merit confifted in the grandeur of his thoughts, or Homer's in majefty and a chafte fweetnefs, the point of prefer- ence between them might be decided :. but while their diftinguifhing beauties vary in kind, the contention of fuperi- ority is endlefs. Yet can any one thence conclude, that they want real merit ? or that men want a natural tafte for their charms ? When pleafing objects lie in different departments of beauty, and cannot be compared, then pre-en- gagement, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 33 gagement, the praifes of others whofe judgments we value, novelty, or the fcarcity of one kind, turn the fcale, and form the preference. You may pre- fer the mild fragrancy and glow of a rofe, another may rather admire the gorgeous array of a tulip, yet neither has ftrayed from the province of beauty. The fmall value put upon fome flow- ers, is not a proof that they are not efteemed, but that they are common. The rofe and honeyfuckle are neglecT:- ed and left in the hedges, not becaufe they want beauty, but becaufe they are every where prefented to our eyes, and may be had without pains or price. We value them, and pafs them by without curiofity, as we do the wild concert we hear in the woods and copfes. It is a miftake to think men value things in proportion as they pay for them. Good air, fleep, daylight, or the liberty D of 34. CLIO: OR, A of going where we pleafe, are known by every one to be bleflings of the firft rate ; yet no one buys them who is at liberty to enjoy them, although peo- ple pay dearly for things they do not va- lue half fo much. You readily conceive, that tafte In common difcourfe, is applied to the habitual prepofieffions of a nation, par- ticularly of the people of fafhion, in which fenfe it comprehends both the univerfal attachments which are com- mon to the fpecies, and the cafual likings and averfions in matters naturally in- different, fuch as the modes of drefs and furniture, which by an accidental aflbciation are become objects of prefer- ence and difguft. In this vulgar fenfe, tafte is no more than the image of the times upon the mind, which varies in nations and ages, or atnongft particular perfons, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 35 perfons, and may be called mixed tafe. When you untwine the parts of mixed tafte, when you reject all that is cafual, and peculiar to this or that country or age as fpurious, and have taken the univerfal charms that affect the favage and courtier, the ruftic and philofopher, the Indian and European, this laft is real beauty, the object of the tafte I treat of. And happy it is for the fame of poets, philofophers, and patriots, that there is fuch a fenfe in the human mind, by which their eternal palms floufifh, and muft blootn afrefh through all ages, as long as mankind remain in being. • You are to obferve, that I do not call tafte a fpecies of judgment, although It is actually that part of judgment, whbfe objects are the fublime, the beautiful, and affecting ; becaufe this kind of judg- ment is not the iffue of reafon and aomparifon, like a mathematical infer- D 2 ence, 36 C L I O; OR, A ence, but is perceived inftantaneoufly, • and obtruded upon the mind, like fweet and bitter upon the fenfe, from which analogy it has borrowed the name of tajle. There have been criticks fo trifl- ing, as to enquire whether the word tafte^ which is plainly metaphorical, was in ufe in the learned languages. A man blefied with plain common fenfe would undoubtedly conceive that the thing meant by it was known, ever fince beauty and grandeur of thought were obferved in the world, and admired. We may to as much purpofe enquire whether the an- cients had diftiniSt names for the tender- nefs of a parent, or the flavour of Chian wine j and if we find nofuch words upon record, conclude that the ancients did not love their children, or diftinguifli their wines. Good tafte is the inward light or in- •j telligence of univerfal beauty. In Greece, where DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 37 where it firft fhone, poetry, architec- ture, painting, fculpture, and mufic, fprung up together, the beautiful chil- dren of one birth. At the fame time the men were remarkable for elevated fen- timents, and the women for that elegance which gives the laft luftre to beauty. The fame revolution happened in Rome ; and now again the fciences revive in concert in Europe, and elegance awakes with the arts. In the ages of ignorance they all languifhed, and fell together. The heavy, confufed, and grofs ornaments of the old Gothick buildings, placed with- out elegance or proportion (fays Rollin) were the images of the writings of the fame age. From the joint appearance and recefs of the engaging arts, it is obvious that they are related and depend upon the fame principle; accordingly you find a ftriking conformity in the moft diftant produc- D 3 tions 3$ C L I O : Q R, A ticms of genius. Mufic infpirea us like a glowing description ; the ftatue and picture breathe the fire and paflion of poetry ; and you will difcover the fame ftile and image of grandeur in Corregio that you fee in Homer. True tafle difcovers with delight the image of nature, and purfues it with a faithful paffion. The graceful and the becoming are never found feparated from nature and propriety. When we catne to this obfervation in Rollin, you made an objection, that obliged me, in order to anfwer it, to make fome reflections, which led me nearer the origin of elegance than I expected. Your objection, madam, was this : " If elegance be in- feparable from propriety and nature, why are not the common people, who are without education, juft as nature made them, the moft graceful ? and why does elegance refide only amongft thofe who are DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 39 are formed by art ?" I could not pafs over this ingenious queftion without an an- fwer, and it led me to the following ob- fervations. It is not from men in want, whether real or imaginary, we are to feek for the natural biafsofthe foul. The neceflaries and comforts of life are procured by vaft labour and hardfhips, which fall to the lot of the common herd of mankind in all countries ; and labour requires harfh, forced, and violent motions, which there- fore become habitual to the crowd. As this race of men walk not for pleafure, but to perform journeys, or to re- move where their occafions call them, they take the advantage of bending the body forward, and of aiding the motion by a fling with their arms as they walk. Their low ftation, their wants and em- ployments, give them a fordidnefs and un- generofity of difpofition, together with a D 4 coarfenefs 40 C L I O : o R, A coarfenefs and nakednefs of expreffion ; from whence it happens, that their mo- tions and addrefs are equally rude and ungraceful. And yet by confidering the matter clofely you may difcovcr, that this unfeemly and diflionoured irate of man is accidental, and is in truth the offspring of his wants, and of the miferies that yoak him down a flave to the glebe he tills, and deprefs together his mind and body. But obferve the few in a higher ftation, who by their for- tunes are difengaged from wretchednefs and poverty, who vegetate freely, and take the bias of the unfettered human genius. You fee their tafte foon dif- tinguifh them from the crowd, they af- fume a more elevated character, they feem to be infpired by a nobler foul, a more generous vein difcovers itfelf in their bofoms, elegance and lofty decency make their appearance in the human ftate, and an illuftrious nature appears to view, which was neverthelefs real while it lay buried DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 41 buried and op prefix d under wretched- ncfs. Abjeft meannefs and rudenefs then are the ifTue of hardfhip and want, but not of the human difpofition or frame of mind ; on the contrary, the moment man is releaied from the violence and mi- fery that opprels him, that his real na- ture takes the lead, and his tafte aflumes its honeft rights ; it covers him with de- cent elegance ; it beflows on him a dig- nity worthy of the fovereign of earth, air, and water ; it wraps him in the golden •' vifions of poetry and mufic, and charms / him with the new ideas of beauty and j grandeur. Thefe are the natural paf- fions that lay hid, and now break forth to view, when the preffure is taken off that bent down the Have, and chained his .' attentions to the earth. The appetite of beauty lies always in the mind ready to \ direcl us to finer profpe&s. Conceive a youthful 42 C L I O : OR, A youthful monarch, long aftray upon a barren heath, amongft miferable vil- lagers, his infant years almoft forgotten, and his thoughts wholly taken up by his prefent unfortunate circumftances. He is at length difcovered, and reftored to his court, to grandeur, and pleafure, which he recollects with fecret joy. Tafte finds us in this manner forlorn outcafts, fhe ftrips us of our rudenefs, and leads us to fcenes and profpeds where all is beau- tiful, and all is familiar. You may eafily fee the rcafon why the inhabitants of bar- ren countries and of the northern part of Europe and Afia muft full into rudenefs, and men who fpend their whole time in hunting and procuring the necefTaries of life become favages ; a fenfe of beauty is not loft in them, they only want leifure and quiet to attend to it. Here then is the key to your difficulty. •Elevation of thought, and the fenfe of .beauty, are natural to the foul ; but foon after DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 4$ after the infant comes into the world, long before the mind is matured, or its atten- tions meet its favourite objects, cold, heat, hunger, ficknefs, and the various diftrefies to which we are fubje&ed, prevent our fentiments, and model our views into a fordid mundane fcheme of intereft, of riches, and power ; and teach us to fet a mighty value on the conveniencies that redrefs our wants. Beauty, and gran- deur of fentiment, however illuftrious, are not fo preffing as neceffity, they are the difcoveries of a tranquil mind, and muft lye behind the curtain, while want and labour iffue forth upon the ftage, and engage the attention. Labour and want are the fame thing to the human mind, that froft and a chilling air are to a tender tree or flowering fhrub, tranfpianted to a northern climate ; they blaft it, and forbid its native flowers and verdure to appear, and they prefcnt it to the eye in barrenncfs and winter naked- 44 C L I O : o R, A nefs. Uncomely barbarity, and a fordid difpofition, are the unworthy offspring of our miferies and fufferings, every day im- prefles them deeper upon the mind, in which difhonoured ftate the race of man muft have continued, until from art and induflry, arofe plenty and eafe. Thus in proportion as our fpecies emerge out of want, they meet and embrace the fa- miliar ideas of dignity and beauty, and get ftiort interrupted views of the fources of the fine arts, as men conVerfe with well- known acquaintances in their fleep, whom they never knew in real life; then the froft begins to diflblve, the barren orange fhrub is removed to a more fouthern foil, where it puts forth unknown bloffoms, and bears in pride its golden fruit. However I muft obferve, that in fa- vage rudenefs and barbarity, tafte lies very near the reflections of men ; and, as I faid, the reafon they mifs of it is, be- caufe DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 45 caufe they are employed on obje&s of greater importance j but in polite na- tions, tafte is often more irretrievable, becaufe, when a mixed tafte has got pofleffion of the mind, the natural fenfe of beauty is deceived, and feeks for no other object. Having anfwered the objections ufually brought againft a permanent fenfe of beauty, let us now proceed to fingle out the particular fpecies or kinds of beauty ; and begin with elegance of perfon, that fo wonderfully elevates the human character. Elegance, the moft undoubted ofF- fpring and vifible image of fine tafte, the moment it appears, is univerfally ad- mired : men difagree about the other conftituent parts of beauty, but they all unite without heutation to acknowledge the power of elegance. The 46 C L I O . o R, A The general opinion is, that this moft confpicuous part of beauty, that is per- ceived and acknowledged by every body, is yet utterly inexplicable, and retires from our fearch when we would difcover what it is. Where fhall I find the fecret retreat of the graces, to explain to me the elegance they dictate, and to paint in vifible colours the fugitive and varying enchantment that hovers round a graceful perfon, yet leaves us for ever in agreeable fufpence and confufion ? I need not feelc for them, madam ; the graces are but emblems of the human mind, in its love- lieft apppearances ; and while I write for you, it is impoflible not to feel their in- fluence. Perfonal Elegance, for that is the ob- ject of our prefent enquiry, may be de- fined the image and reflection of the gran- deur and beauty of the invifible foul. Grandeur and beauty in the foul itfelf, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 47 are not objects of fenfe ; colours cannot paint them, but they are united to fenti- ments that appear viable ; they beftow a noble meaning and importance of atti- tude, and diffufe inexpreffible lovelinefs over the perfon. When two or more paflions or fenti- ments unite, they are not fo readily dif- tinguifhed, as if they had appeared fepa- rate ; however, it is eafy to obferve, that the complacency and admiration we feel in the prefence of elegant perfons, is made up of refpecl: and affection ; and that we are difappointed when we fee fuch perfons act a bafe or indecent part. Thefe fymptoms plainly fhew, that per- fonal elegance appears to us to be the image and reflection of an elevated and beauti- ful mind. In fome characters, the gran- deur of foul is predominant ; in whom beauty is majeftic and awful. In this ftile is Mifs F-— — . In other charac- l ters. 48 C L I O : OR, A ters, a foft and attracting grace is more confpicuous : this latter kind is more pleafing, for an obvious reafon. But elegance cannot exift in either alone, without a mixture of the other ; for majefty without the beautiful, would be haughty and difgufting ; and eafy accef- fible beauty would lofethe idea of elegance, and become an object of contempt. The grandeur and beauty of the foul charm us univerfally, who have all of us implanted in our bofoms, even in the midft of mifery, paffions of high defcent, im- menfe ambition, and romantick hopes. You may conceive an imprifoned bird, whofe wild notes, prompted by the approach of fpring, give her a confufed notion of joy, although {he has no diftinct idea of airy flights and fummer groves ; fo when man emerging from wretchednefs aflumes a nobler character, and the elevation of the human genius ap- pears openly, we view with fecret joy, and DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 49 and delightful amazement, the fure evi- dence and pledge of our dignity : the mind catches fire by a train that lies within itfelf, and expands with confcious pride and merit, like a generous youth over the images of his country's heroes. Of the foftened and engaging part of elegance, I fhall have occafion to fpeak at large hereafter. Perfonal elegance or grace is a fu- } gitive luftre, that never fettles in any part of the body ; you fee it glance and difappear in the features and motions of a graceful perfon ; it ftrikes your view ; it fhines like an exhalation : but the mo- ment you follow it, the wandering flame vanifhes, and immediately lights up in fomething elfe : you may as well think of fixing the pleafing delufion of your dreams, or the colours of a diflblving rainbow. E You 50 CLIO: OR, A You have arifen early at times, in the fummer feafon, to take the advantage of the cool of the morning, to ride abroad. Let us fuppofe you have miftaken an hour or two, and juft got out a few minutes before the rifing of the fun. You fee the fields and woods, that lay the night before in obfcurity, attiring themfelves in beauty and verdure ; you fee a profufion of brilliants fhining in the dew ; you fee the ftream gradually admitting the light in- to its pure bofom ; and you hear the birds, who are awakened by a rapture, that comes upon them from the morning. If the eaftern fky be clear, you fee it glow with the promife of a flame that has not yet appeared ; and if it be overcaft with clouds, you fee thofe clouds ftained by a bright red, bordered with gold or filver, that by the changes appear volatile, and. ready to vanifh. How various and beau- tiful are thofe appearances, which are not the fun, but the diftant effects of it over 7 dif- DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 51 different objects ! In like manner the foul flings inexpreffible charms over the human perfon and actions ; but then the caufe is lefs known, becaufe the foul for ever fhines behind a cloud, and is always retired from our fenfes. You conceive why elegance is of a fu- gitive nature, and exifts chiefly in mo- tion : as it is communicated by the prin- ciple of action that governs the whole perfon, it is found over the whole body, and is fixed no-where. The curious eye with eagernefs purfues the wandering beauty, which it fees with furprize at every turn, but is never able to overtake. It is a waving flame, that, like the reflec- tion of the fun from water, never fettles ; it glances on you in every motion and difpofition of the body ; its different powers through attitude and motion feem to be collected in dancing, wherein it E 2 plays 52 C L I Oj OR, A plays over the arms, the legs, the breaft, the neck, and in fhort the whole frame : but if grace has any fixed throne, it is in the face, the refidence of the foul, where you think a thoufand times it is juft iffuing into view. Elegance aflumes to itfelf an empire equal to that of the foul ; it rules and in- fpires every part of the body, and makes ufe of all the human powers ; but it par- ticularly takes the paflions under its charge and direction, and turns them in- to a kind of artillery, with which it does infinite execution. The paflions that are favourites with the graces are modefty, good-nature, par- ticularly when it is heightened by a fmall colouring of affection into fweetnefs^ and that fine languor which feems to be formed of a mixture of ftill joy and hope. Sur- prize, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 53 prize, fhame, and even grief and anger, have appeared pleafing under proper re- ftrictions ; for it muft be obferved, that all excefs is {hocking and difagreeable, and that even the moft pleafing paifions appear to moft advantage when the tinc- ture they caft over the countenance is en- feebled and gentle. The pafiions that are enemies to the graces are impudence, af- fectation, ftrong and harm, degrees of pride, malice, and aufterity. There is an union of the fine paffions, but fo Delicate that you cannot conceive any one of them feparate from the reft, called fenfibility^ which is requifite in an elegant deportment j it chiefly refides in the eye, which is indeed the feat of the paflions. I have fpoken of the paffions only as they are fubfervient to grace, which is the object of our prefent attention. The E 3 fa(?e 54 C L I O : o R, A face is the mother-country, if I may call it fo, or the habitation of grace ; and it vifits the other parts of the body only as diftant provinces, with fome little parti- ality to the neck, and the fine bafis that fupports itj but the countenance is the very palace in which it takes up its refi- dence ; it is there it revels through its va- rious apartments ; you fee it wrappedin clouded majefty upon the brow ; you dif- cover it about the lips hardly rifing to a fmile, and vanifhing in a moment, when it is rather perceived than feen j and then, fry the moft engaging viciffitudes^ it en- livens, flames, and diflblves in the eye. You have, I fuppofe, all along obferv- ed, that I am not treating of beauty, which depends on different principles, but of that elegance which is the effecl: of a delicate and awakened tafte, and in every kind of form is the enchantment that attracts and pleafes univerfally, even without DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 55 without the afliftance of any other charm ; whereas without it no degree of beauty is charming. You have un- doubtedly feen women lovely without much beauty, and handfome without being lovely j it is gracefulnefs caufes this variation, and throws a luftre over difagreeable features, as the fun paints a fhowery cloud with the colours of the rainbow. I before remarked, that the grace of every elegant perfon is varied agreeable to fhe chara&er and difpofidon of the per- fon it beautifies ; I am fenfible you rea- dily conceive the reafon. Elegance is the natural habit and image of the foul beam- ing forth in a&ion ; it muft therefore be exprefled by the peculiar features, air, and difpofition of the perfon ; it muft arife from nature, and flow with eafe and a propriety that diftinguifties it. The imitation of any particular perfon, how- E 4 ever 56 C L I O : o R, A ever graceful, is dangerous, left the affec- tation appear; but the unftudied elegance of nature is acquired by the example and converfation of feveral elegant perfons of different characters, which people adopt to the import of their own geftures, with- out knowing how. It is alfo becaufe elegance is the re- flection of the foul appearing in action, that good ftatues, and pictures drawn from life, are laid before the eye in mo- tion. If you look at the old Gothic churches built in barbarous ages, you will fee the ftatues reared up dead and inani- mate againft the walls. I faid, at the beginning of this little difcourfe, that the beauty of drefs refults from mode or fafhion, and it certainly does fo in a great meafure ; but I muft limit that aflertion by the following ob- fervation, that there is alfo a real beauty DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 57 in attire that does not depend on the mode : thofe robes which leave the whole perfon at liberty in its motions, and that give to the imagination the natural pro- portions and fymmetry of the body, are always more becoming than fucli as re- ftrain any part of the body, or in which it is loft or disfigured. You may eafily imagine how a pair of flays laced tightly about the Minerva we admired, would opprefs the fublime beauty of her com- portment and figure. Since perfons of rank cannot chufe their own drefs, but muft run along with the prefent fafhion, the fecret of drefling gracefully muft con- fift in the flender variations that cannot be obferved to defert the fafhion, and yet approach nigher to the complexion and import of the countenance, and that at the fame time allows to the whole body the greateft poffible freedom, eafe, and imagery : by imagery I mean, that as a good painter will fhew the effect of the mufcles 58 C L I O : OR, A mufcles that do not appear to the eye, fo a perfoa fkilful in drefs will difplay the elegance of the form, though it be covered and out of view. As the tafte of drefs ap- proaches to perfection all art difappears, and it feems the effedl of negligence and inftin&ive inattention : for this reafon its beauties arife from the manner and gene- ral air rather than from the richnefs, which laft, when it becomes too grofs and oppreffive, deftroys the elegance. A bril- liancy and parade in drefs is therefore the infallible fign of a bad tafte, that in this contraband manner endeavours to make amends for the want of true elegance, and bears a relation to the heaps of orna- ment that encumbered the Gothic build- ings. Apelles obfcrving an Helen paint- ed by one of his fcholars, that was over- charged with a rich drefs, " I find, young man, faid he, not being able to paint her beautiful, you have made her fine." Harfh DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 59 Harfh and violent motions are always unbecoming. Milton attributes the fame kind of motion to his angels that the Heathens did to their deities, fcft Jllding without jlep. It is impoffible to preferve the attractions in a country-dance that attend on a minuet ; as the ftep quick- ens, the moft delicate of the graces retire. The rule holds univerfally through all action, whether quick or flow; it fhould always partake of the fame polifhed and foftened motion, particularly in the tranfi- tions of the countenance, where the genius of the perfon feems to hover and refide. The degrees run very high upon the fcale of elegance, and probably few have arrived near the higheft pitch ; but it is certain, that the idea of furprifing beauty that was familiar in Greece, has been hardly conceived by the moderns : many cf their ftatues remain the objects of our ad- 60 C L I O : o R, A admiration, but wholly fuperior to imi- tation ; their pi&ures that have funk in the wreck of time, appear in the defcrip- tions made of them to have equal imagi- nation with the ftatues ; and their poetry abounds with the fame coeleftial imagery. But what puts this matter out of doubt is, that their celebrated beauties were the models of their artifts, and it is known, that the elegancies of Thai's and Phryne were copied by the famous pain- ters of Greece, and configned to canvafs and marble to aftonifh and charm diftant ages. Perfonal elegance, in which tafte af- fumes the moft confpicuous and noble appearance, confufes us in our enquiries after it, by the quicknefs and variety of its changes, as well as by a complica- tion that is not eafily unravelled. I de- fined it to be the image and reflection of a great and beautiful foul j let us fepa- rate DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 61 rate the diftin& parts of this variety ; when they appear afunder, you will find them perfectly familiar and intelligible. The firfl, and moft refpe&able part, that enters into the compofition of ele- gance, is the lofty confcioufnefs of worth or virtue, which fuftains an ha- bitual decency, and becoming pride. The fecond and moft pleafing part, is a difplay of good-nature approaching to affection, of gentle affability, and, in general, of the pleafing paffions. It feems difficult to reconcile thefe two parts, and in fa& it is fo ; but when they unite, then they appear like a re- ferved and virgin kindnefs, that is at once noble and foft, that may be won, but muft be courted with delicacy. The third part of ^elegance is the appearance of a polifhed and tranquil habit 6.2 C L I O. OR, A habit of mind, that foftens the actions and emotions, and gives a covert profpe<5t t>f innocence and undifturbed repofe. I will treat of thefe feparate, and firft of dignity of foul. I obferved, near the beginning of this Difcourfe, in anfwer to art objection you made, that the mind has always a tafte for truth, for gratitude, for generofity, and greatnefs of foul : thefe, which are pecu- liarly called fenti?nents> flamp upon the human fpirit a dignity and worth not to be found in any other animated be- ing. However great and furprifing the moft glorious objects in nature be, the heaving ocean, the moon that guides it and cafts a foftened luftre over the night, the ftarry firmament, or the fun itfelf ; yet their beauty and grandeur inftantly appear of an inferior kind, beyond all comparifon, to this of the foul of man. Thefe fentiments are united under the general DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 63 general name of virtue ; and fuch are the embellifhmentstheydiffufe over the mind, that Plato, a very polite philofopher, fays finely, " If Virtue was to appear in a vi- fxble fhape, all men would be enamoured of her." Virtue and truth are infeparable, and take their flight together. A mind de- void of truth is a frightful wreck ; it is like a great city in ruins, vvhofe mouldring towers juft bring to the ima- gination the mirth and life that once were there, and is now no more. Truth is the genius of tafte, and enters into the efTence of fimple beauty in wit, in writ- ing, and throughout the fine arts. Generofity covers almoft all other defects, and raifes a blaze around them in which they difappear and are loft : like fovereign beauty, it makes a fhort it wins our hearts without (64 C L I O : OR, A without refiftance or delay, and unites all the world to favour and fupport its defigns. Grandeur of foul, fortitude, and a re* folution that haughtily ftruggles with defpair, and will neither yield to, nor make terms with, misfortunes ; which through every fituation, repofes a noble confidence in itfelf, and has an immove- able view to future glory and honour, aftonifhes the world with admiration and delight. We, as it were, lean for- ward with furprize and trembling joy to behold the human foul collecting its ftrength, and aflerting a right to fupe- rior fates. When you leave man out of your account, and view the whole vi- fible creation befide, you indeed fee fe- veral traces of grandeur and unfpeakable power, and the intermixture of a rich fcenery of beauty ; yet ftill the whole appears to be but a folemn abfurdity, and DISCOURSE o* TASTE. 65 and to have a littlenefs and infignifi- cancy. But when you reftore man to profpe&, and put him at the head of it, endued with genius and an im- mortal foul ; when you give him a paf- fion for truth, boundlefs views that fpread along through eternity, and a for- titude that ftruggles with fate, and yields not to misfortunes', then the fkies, the ocean, and the earth, take the ftamp of worth and dignity from the noble in- habitant whofe purpofes they ferve. A mind fraught with the virtues is the natural foil of elegance. Unaffected truth, generofity, and grandeur of foul, for ever pleafe and charm : even when they break from the common forms, and appear wild* and unmethodized by education, they* are {till beautiful. On the contrary, as foon as we difcover that outward ele- gance which is formed by the mode, to F want 66 CLIO: OR, A want truth, generofity, or grandeur of foul, it inftantly finks in our efteem like coun- terfeit coin, and we are fenfible of a re- luctant difappointment like that of the lover in the epigram, who became ena- moured with the lady's voice and the foftnefs of her hand in the dark, but was cured of his paffion as foon as he had light to view her. Let us now pafs on to the moft pleafing part of elegance, an habitual difplay of the kind and gentle paflions, We are naturally inclined to love thofe who bear an affe&ion to us j and we are charmed with the homage that is paid to our -merit : by thefe weaknefles politenefs attacks us. The well-bred gentleman always in his behaviour in- fmuates a regard to others, tempered with refpecl. His attention to pleafe confefles DISCOURSE QN TASTE. 67 confefles plainly his kindnefs to you, and the high efteem he holds you in. The affiduous prevention of our wifhes, and that yielding fweetnefs complaifance puts on for our fake, are irrefiftable ; and although we know this kind of flattery to be proftitute and habitual, yet it is not indfferent to us ; we receive it in a manner that (hews how much it gra- tifies us. ' The defire of being agreeable, finds out the art of being fo without ftudy or labour. Ruftics who fall in love, grow unufually polite and engaging. This new charm, that has altered their na- tures, and fuddenly endued them with the powers of pleafing, is nothing more than an enlivened attention to pleafe, that has taken pofleffion of their minds, and tinc- tured their actions. We ought not to wonder that We is thus enchanting : its F 2 tender ea e r, i o5 OR, A tender aflxduity is but the natural a^drefs of the paffion ; politenefs borrows the flattering form of affe&ion, and becomes agreeable by the appearance of kind- jiefs. What pleafes us generally appears beautiful. Complaifance, that is fo en- gaging, gives an agreeablenefs to the whole perfon, and creates a beauty that nature gave not to the features j it fubmits, it promifes, it applauds in the countenance; the heart lays itfelf in Jfmiles at your feet, and a voice that is indulgent and tender, is always heard with pleafure. The laft conftituent part of elegance is the picture of a tranquil foul that ap- pears in foftening the a&ions and emo- tions, and exhibits a retired profpeft of happinefs and innocence. A calm DISCOURSE on TASTE. 69 A calm of mind that is feen in grace* ful eafy action, and in the enfeeblement of our paffions, gives us an idea of the golden age, when human nature, adorned with innocence, and the peace that at- tends it, repofed in the arms of content. This ferene profpe& of human nature always pleafes us ; and although the con- tent, whofe image^ it is, be vifionary in this world, and we cannot arrive at it, yet it is the point in imagination we have finally in view, in all the purfuits of life, and the native home for which we do not ceafe to languifh. The fentiment of tranquillity particu- larly beautifies paftoral poetry. The images of calm and happy quiet that appear in fhaded groves, in filent vales, and flum- bers by falling ftreams, invite the poet to indulge his genius in rural fcenes. The mufic that lulls and compofes the mind, at the fame time enchants it. The F 3 hue 70 C t I O : o R, A hue of this beauteous eafe, caft over the human actions and emotions, forms a yery delightful part of elegance, and gives the other conftituent parts an ap- pearance of nature and truth : for in a tranquil ftate of mind, undifturbed by wants or fears, the views of men are generous and elevated. From the com- bination of thefe fine parts, grandeur of foul, complacency, and eafe, arife the enchantments of elegance ; but the ap- pearance of the two laft are oftener found together, and then they form Politenefs. When we take a view of the feparate parts that conftitute perfonal elegance, we immediately know the feeds that are proper to be cherifhed in the infant mind, to bring forth the beauteous production. The virtues fhould be cultivated early with facred care, Good-nature, modefty, jrfFability, and a kind concern for others, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 71 fliould be carefully inculcated j and an eafy unconftrained dominion acquired by habit over the paffions. A mind thus finely prepared, is capable of the higheft luftre of elegance ; which is after- wards attained with as little labour as our firft language, by only aflbciating with graceful people of different charac- ters, from whom an habitual gracefulnefs will be acquired, that will bear the na- tural unaffected ftamp of our own minds : in {hort, it will be our own character and genius ftripped of its native rudenefs, and enriched with beauty and attraction. Nature, that beftows her favours with- out refpecl: of perfons, often denies to the great the capacity of diftinguifhed elegance, and flings it away in obfcure villages. You fometimes fee it at a coun- try fair fpread an amiablenefs over a fun-burnt girl, like the light of the moon through a mift j but fuch, madam, is the F 4 neceffity 73 C L I O: OR, A neceflity of habitual elegance acquired by f Ration and converfe, that if even you were born in that low clafs, you could be no more than the faireft damfel at the may-pole, and the object pf the hope and jealoufy of a few ruftics. People are rendered totally incapable of elegance by the want of good-nature, and the other gentle paffions j by the want of modefty and fenfibility ; and by a want of that noble pride which arifes from a confcioufnefs of lofty and gene- rous fentiments. The abfence of thefe native charms is generally fupplied by g brifk ftupidity, an impudence uncon- fcious of defect, a caft of malice, and »n uncommon tendency to ridicule ; as if nature had given thefe her ftep-chil" tjren an inftinftive intelligence, that they can rife out of contempt only by the de- preflion of others. For the fame reafon it is, that perfons of true and finifhed tafte DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 73 tafte feldom affect ridicule, becaufe they are confcious of their own fuperior me- rit. Pride is the caufe of ridicule in the one, as it is of candour in the other ; but the effects differ, as the ftudied parade of poverty does from the negligent grandeur of riches. You will fee nothing more common in the world than for peo - pie, who by ftupidity and infenfibility are incapable of the graces, commence wits on the ftrength of the petite talents of mimickry, and the brilk tartnefs that ill- nature never fails to fupply. From what I have faid it appears, that a fenfe of elegance is a fenfe of dignity, of virtue, and innocence united. Is it not natural then to expect, that in the courfe of a liberal education, men (hould cultivate the generous qualities they ap- prove and aflume ? But inftead of them, men only aim at the appearances, which require no felf-denial ; and thus, with- out 74 C L I O : OR, A out acquiring the virtues, they facrifice their honefty and fincerity : whence it comes to pafs, that there is often the lead virtue where there is the greateft appear- ance of it ; and that the poliftied part of mankind only arrive at the fubtile cor- ruption, of uniting vice with the drefs and complexion of virtue. I have dwelt on perfonal elegance, be- caufe the ideas and principles in this part of good tafte are more familiar to you. We may then take them for a foundation, in our future obfervations, fince the fame principles of eafy grace and fimple gran- deur, will animate our ideas with an unftudied propriety, and enlighten our judgments in beauty, in literature, in fculpture, painting, and the other depart- ments of fine tafte. I (hall but (lightly touch on our tafte of perfonal beauty, becaufe it requires no directions DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 75 dire&ions to be known. To afk what is beauty, fays a philofopher, is the queftion of a blind man. I {hall therefore only make a few reflections on this head, that lie out of the common tradl. But prior to what I have to fay, it is necefiary to make fome obfervations on phyfiognomy. There is an obvious relation between the mind and the turn of the features, fo well known by inflin£t, that every one is more or lefs expert at reading the coun- tenance. We look as well as fpeak our minds ; and amongft people of little ex- perience, the look is generally moft fin- cere. This is fo well underftood, that it is become a part of education to learn to difguife the countenance, which yet requires a habit from early youth, and the continual practice of hypocricy, to deceive an intelligent eye. The natural virtues and vices not only have their places in the , even acquired habits that much 76 C L I O : OR, A affeft the mind fettle there ; contempla- tion, in length of time, gives a caft of thought to the countenance. Now to come back to our fubje& : the afTemblage called beauty, istheimags of noble fentiments and amiable paflions in the face j but fo blended and confufed that we are not able to feparate and di- ftinguifh them. The mind has a fen- fibility, and clear knowledge, in many inftances without reflection, or even the power of reafoning upon its own percep- tions. We can no more account for the relation between the paflions of the mind and a fet of features, than we can ac- count for the relation between the founds of mufick and the paflions ; the eye is judge of the one without principles or rules, as the ear is of the other. It is impoflible you fhould not take notice of the remarkable difference of beauty DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 77 beauty in the fame face, in a good and in ill humour ; and if the gentle paflions in an indifferent face, do not change it to perfect beauty j it is, becaufe nature did not originally model the features to the juft and familiar ex- preflion of thofe paflions, and the ge- nuine expreffions of nature can never be wholly obliterated. But it is necefiary to obferve, that the engaging import that forms beauty, is often the fymbol of paflions that, although pleafing, are dan- gerous to virtue j and that a firmnefs of mind, whofe caft of feature is much lefs pleafing, is more favourable to virtue. From the affinity between beauty and the paflions it muft follow, that beauty is re- lative, that is, a fenfe of human beauty is confined to our fpecies ; and alfo, as far as we have a power over the paflions, we are able to improve the face, and tranfplant charms into itj both of which obfervations have 78 C L I O: OR, A been often made. From the various prin* ciples of beauty, and the agreeable com- binations, of which the face gives in- telligence, fprings that variety found in the ftile of beauty. Complexion is a kind of beauty that is pleafingonly by affbciation. The brown, the fair, the black, are not any of them original beauty ; but when the com- plexion is united in one picture on the imagination, with the aflemblage that forms the image of the tender paflions, with gentle fmiles, and kind endearments, it is then infeparable from our idea of beauty, and forms a part of it. From the fame caufe, a national fet of features appear amiable to the inhabitants, who have been accuftomed to fee the amiable difpofitions through them. This obfer- vation refolves a difficulty, that often oc- curs in the reflections of men on our pre- fent fubjeft. We all fpeak of beauty as if DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 79 if it were acknowledged and fettled by a publick ftandard ; yet we find, in fact, that people, in placing their affections, often have little regard to the common notions of beauty. The truth is, com- plexion and form being the charms that are vifible and confpicuous, the com- mon ftandard of beauty is generally re- ftrained to thofe external attractions : but fince perfonal grace and the engaging paflions, although they cannot be deli- neated, have a more universal and uni- form power, it is no wonder people, in re- figning their hearts, fo often contradict the common received ftandard. Accord- ingly, as the engaging paflions and the addrefs are difcovered in converfation, the tender attachments of people are generally fixed by an intercourfe of fentiment, and feldom by a tranfient view, except in ro- mances and novels. It is further to be obferved, that when once the affections are fixed, a new face with a higher degree of go C L I O: OR, A of beauty will not always have a higher degree of power to remove them, becaufe our affections arife from a fource within ourfelves, as well as from external beau- ty ; and when the tender paffion is at- tached by a particular object, the imagi- nation furrounds that object with a thou- fand ideal embellifhments that exift only in the mind of the lover. The hiftory of the fhort life of beauty may be collected from what I have faid. In youth that borders on infancy, the paffions are in a ftate of vegetation, they only ap- pear in full bloom in maturity j for which reafon the beauty of youth is no more than the dawn and promife of future beauty. The features, as we grow into years, gradu- ally form along with the mind : different fenfibilities gather into the countenance, and become beauty there, as colours mount in a tulip, and enrich it. When the eloquent force and delicacy of fentiment 2 has DISCOURSE ON TASTE. Si has continued fame little time, age be- gins to ftiffen the features, and deftroy the engaging variety and vivacity of the countenance j the eye gradually lofes its fire, and is no longer the mirror of the agreeable pafllons. Finally, old age fur- rows the face with wrinkles, as a bar- barous conqueror overturns a city from the foundation, and tranfitory beauty is extinguiflied. Beauty and elegance are nearly related, their difference confifts in this, that ele- gance is the image of the mind difplayed in motion and deportment ; beauty is an image of the mind in the countenance and form ; confequently beauty is of a more fixed nature, and owes lefs to art and habit. When I fpcak of beauty, it is not wholly out of my way to make a fin- gular obfervation on the tender paffion in our fpecies Innocent and virtuous G love 82 CLIO: OR, A Jove cafts a beauteous hue over human nature; it quickens and {Strengthens our admiration of virtue, and our deteftation of vice \ it opens our eyes to our imper- fections, and gives us a pride in excelling ; it infpires us with heroic fentiments, ge- nerofity, a contempt of life, a boldnefs for enterprise, chaftity, and purity of fentiment. It takes a fimilitude to devo- tion, and almoft deifies the object of paffion. People whofe breafts are dulled with vice, or ftupified by nature, call this paffion romantic love j but when it was the mode, it was the diagnoftic of a vir- tuous age. Thefe fymptoms of heroifm, fpring from an obfcure principle, that in a noble mind unites itfelf with every paffionate view in life j this namelefs prin- ciple is diftinguifhed by endowing people with extraordinary powers and enthufiafm in the purfuit of their favourite wifhes, and by difguft and difappointment when we arrive at the point where our wifhes fecm to be completed. It has made great 2 conquerors DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 83 conquerors defpife dangers and death in their way to victory, and figh afterwards when they had no more to conquer. From external beauty we come to the charms of converfation and writing. Words, by reprefenting ideas, become the picture of our thoughts, and commu- cate them with the greateft fidelity. But they are not only the figns of fenfible ideas, they exhibit the very image and diftinguifhing likenefs of the mind that ufes them. Converfation does not require the fame merit to pleafe that writing does. The hu- man foul is endued with a kind of natural expreffion, which it does not acquire. The expreffion I fpeak of confifts in the fignificant modulations and tones of voice, accompanied, in unaffected people, by a propriety of gefture. This native language was not intended by nature to reprefent the tranfitory ideas that come G 2 by 84 C L I O j o Ri A by the fenfes to the imagination, but the paffions of the mind and its emo- tions only j therefore modulation and gefture give life and paflion to words ; their mighty force in oratory is very con- fpicuous : but although their effe&s be milder in converfation, yet they are very fenfible ; they agitate the foul by a va- riety of gentle fenfations, and help to form that fweet charm that makes the moft trifling fubje&s engaging. This fine expreflion, which is not learned, is not fo much taken notice of as it de- ferves, becaufe it is much fuperfeded by the ufe of artificial and acquired lan- guage. The modern fyftem of philofo- phy has alfo concurred to fliut it out from our reflections. It is in converfation people put on all their graces, and appear in the luftre of good-breeding. It is certain good- breeding that fets fo great a diftin&iou between DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 85 between individuals of the fame fpecies, creates nothing new (I mean a good edu- cation) but only draws forth into pro- fpect with fkill and addrefs the agreeable difpofitions and fentiments that lay la- tent in the mind. You may call good- breeding artificial j but it is like the art of a gardener, under whofe hand a barren tree puts forth its own bloom, and is enriched with its fpecific fruit. It is fcarce poffible to conceive any fcene fo truly agreeable as an aflembly of people elaborately educated, who aflume a cha- racter fuperior to ordinary life, and fup- port it with eafe and familiarity. The heart is won in converfation by its own paffions. Its pride, its gran- deur, its affections, lay it open to the enchantment of an inflnuating addrefs Flattery is a grofs charm ; but who is proof againft a gentle and yielding difpo- fttion, that infers your fuperiority with a G 3 delicacy S6 C L I O : o R, A delicacy fo fine, that you cannot fee the lines of which it is compofed ? Genero- fity, difmtereftednefs, a noble love of truth that will not deceive, a feeling of the diftrefles of others, and greatnefs of foul, infpire us with admiration along with love, and take our affections as it were by ftorm ; but above all, we are fe- duced by a view of the tender and affec- tionate paflions ; they carry a foft infec- tion, and the heart is betrayed to them by its own forces. If we are to judge from fymptoms, the foul that engages us fo powerfully by its reflected glances, is an object of infinite beauty. I ob- ferved before, that the modulations of the human voice that exprefs the foul, move us powerfully j and indeed we are affected by the natural emotions of the mind expreffed in the fimpleft language : in fliort, the happy art that in conver- fation and the intercourfe of life, lays hold upon our affections, is but a juft addrefs. DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 87 addrefs to the engaging paffions in the human breaft. But this fyren power like beauty is the gift of Nature. Soft pleafing fpeech and graceful out- ward fhow, No arts can gain them, but the gods beftow. POPE'S HOM. From the various combinations of the feveral endearing paffions and lofty fen- timents, arife the variety of pleafing cha- racters that beautify human fociety. There is a different fource of pleafure in converfation from what I have fpoken of, called wit; which diverts the world fo much, that I cannot venture to omit it, although delicacy and a refined tafte he- fitate a little, and will not allow its va- lue to be equal to its currency. Wit deals largely in allufion and whimfical (imilitudes ; its countenance is always double, and it unites the true and the G 4 fantaftic 88 C L I O : o R, A fantaftic by a nice gradation of colour- ing that cannot be perceived. You ob- ferve that I am only fpeaking of the ready wit of converfation. Wit is properly called in to fupport a converfation, where the heart or affections are not concerned ; and its proper bufi- nefs is to relieve the mind from folitary inattention, where there is no room to move it by paffion j the mind's eye, when difengaged, is diverted by being fixed up- on a vapour, that dances, as it were, on the furface of the imagination, and con- tinually alters its afpect : the motley image, whofe comic fide we had only time to furvey, is too unimportant to be attentively confidered, and luckily va- niflies before we can view it on every fide. Shallow folks expect that thofe who diverted them in converfation, and made happy ban mots, ought to write well; and imagine that they themfelves were made DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 89 made to laugh by the force of genius : but they are generally difappointed when they fee the admired character defcend upon paper. The truth is, the frivolous turn and habit of a comic companion, is al- moft diametrically oppofite to true genius, whofe natural exercife is deep and flow- paced reflection. You may as well ex- pect that a man {hould like Casfar form confident fchemes for fubduing the world, and employ the principal part of his time in catching flies. I have often heard people exprefs a furprife, that Swift and Addifon, the two greateft matters of humour of the laft age, were eafily put out of countenance, as if pun, mimickry, or repartee, were the offspring of genius. Whatever fimilitude may be between humour in writing, and humour in con- verfation, they are generally found to require different talents. Humour in writing is the offspring of reflection, and is by nice touches and labour brought to 90 C L I O : OR, A to wear the negligent air of nature; whereas, wit in converfation is an enemy to reflexion, and glows brighteft when the imagination flings off the thought the moment it arifes, in its genuine new- born drefs. Men a little elevated by li- quor feem to have a peculiar facility at ftriking out the capricious and fantaftic images that raife our mirth ; in fact, what we generally admire in faliies of wit, is the nicety with which they touch upon the verge of folly, indifcre- tion, or malice, while at the fame time they preferve thought, fubtilety, and good-humour; and what we laugh at is the motly appearance, whofe whimfical condftency we cannot account for. People are pleafed at wit for the fame reafon that they arc fond of diverfion of any kind, not for the worth of the thing, but becaufe the mind is not able to bear an intenfe train of thinking ; and yet the ceafmg of thought is infulferable, or ra- ther DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 91 ther impoflible. In fuch an uneafy di- lemma, the unfteady excurfions of wit give the mind its natural afiion, without fatigue, and relieve it delightfully, by employing the imagination without re- quiring any reflexion. Thofe who have an eternal appetite for wit, like thofe who are ever in queft of diverfion, be- tray a frivolous minute genius, incapable of thinking. Fine writing is but an eafy picture of nature, as it arifes to view upon the imagination. It is the expreffion of our firft thoughts, or at leaft of what ought to be fo ; and we are furprifed in the moft celebrated writings, to find that they are wholly familiar to us, and feem to be exactly what we ourfelves think and would fay ; and bad writers feem to have been under fome reftraint, that put them out of a path that lay directly before them. Would you not then think, that fine writing fhould be very common ? But 92 C L I O : o R, A But I muft pray you to recoiled!, that ele- gance, though it confifts chiefly in pro- priety and eafe, yet it is attained by very few. I have already intimated the reafon: ; true tafte and fentiment lie deep in the mind, often incorporated with prejudices; and it requires vail judgment to bring the beauteous ore to light, and to refine it. I fhould not be impartial and candid, if .1 did not own to you that learning, in much the greater part of mankind, dif- torts the genius a» much as laced flays do the body ; opprefles the natural feeds of propriety and beauty in the imagination ; and renders men ever incapable of writing or even thinking well. When you ex- cept a few men of diftinguifhed talents, ladies both write and fpeak more agree- ably than fcholars. If you aflc me the reafon of this, I muft inform you, that the eafy and natural excurfions of the imagination are feldom checked in ladies ; while the enflaved pupils of colleges and fchools in tender youth are forced into aukward DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 93 aukward imitations, or dreary ungrateful tracts, where genius or beauty were never fcen. The manner of the ancient fchools was to learn by fuch familiar converfa- tions as you have at times engaged in j by which means, inftead of forcing a nau- feous draught of learning upon youth, their genius was charmed forth by cu- riofity and emulation ; the latent powers of the mind were gently unbound ; and the generous ardor and pleafure that ran originally through their enquiries, gave a warmth, a genuine turn and natural beauty to their ideas. Can there be a ftronger proof that learning has taken a wrong biafs, than that the prefent common fenfe of mankind has judged learning in converfation to be pedantic and ill- breeding ? Whereas the foul has a thirft for knowledge, which no mode can take away ; and it is no more in the power of fafhion to eradicate the charms and de- fires of curiofity, than the fenfe of beauty^ 94. C L I O : o R, A beauty. There is a truth which I would ftrongly inculcate, and which is intimated throughout this little difcourfe; it is, that moft people have more light, judgment, and genius latent within their breafts by far than they are able to draw forth or employ ; that the utmoft (kill and addrefs is requifite to tune thofe fine ftrings of the foul, if I may call them fo, and bring into execution the harmony they are capable of j and that the per- fection of thofe powers, whatever they be, is the higheft degree of improvement to which any perfon's genius can attain. Letters of bufinefs, of compliment, and friendmip, form generally the com- pafs of a lady's writing ; for which, per- haps, the bcft rule thai: can be given is to negled all rules. The fame unaffe&ed grace and propriety which animate your actions and conversion, cannot fail to charm univerfally upon paper: when your DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 95 your ftyle has taken the familiar turn and eafy fpirit of your words, and reje&ed the air of premeditation that fteals in up- on ftudy, then will it be agreeable be- yond imagination j turns of wit and com- pliment, that come without being fought for, are very pleafing in this familiar compofition that approaches fo near to difcourfe ; but they ought to be fuch as might pafs with grace in converfation. Shall we attempt to diftinguifh the moft remarkable excellencies of the writings of the great men who have paflcd through life before us, and form clear ideas of thofe beauties that muft charm mankind to the end of the world ? Writing is but the converfation of abfent people ; let us confider it in this familiar light ; we have little to do with criticifm, which is a perfect art ; we are only travellers in a tour of pleafure, who are taking a curfory view of the moft diftinguifhed beauties 96 C L I O : o R, A beauties of writing ; we may walk with great pleafure in a flower-garden, and cheer the eye with the gay tindh of rofes and lilies, without the minute knowledge of a botanift or florift. Writers, as I obferved, are abfent ac- quaintance ; and the beauties of writing are no other than the qualities that would charm us in an agreeable friend, at an hour when the foul is thoughtful and inquifitive j for the mind in reading feems to be in a middle ftate, between conver- fation and reflection. It has not the le- vity of converfation ; its attention to the weight of thought is not diverted by gef- ticulation ; nor yet is it in fo high a tone, as in penfive folitude. You require it as an abfolute condi- tion, previous to any kind of familiarity, that the perfons you converfe with have a ftri£l attention to truth, to honefty, and decency : DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 97 decency : and the fame attention is abfo- lutely neceflary in writings deftined to pleafe fucceeding ages. It is true, that fome writers amongft the moderns have had the prefumption to draw their pens in defiance to truth and decency, and have taken characters as writers, which they themfelves would defpife in an ac- quaintance. Deifts, while they have ex- prefTed the higheft veneration and refpect for revelation, have taken infinite pains to undermine and expofe it by oblique and covert means. Nothing but the ca- price of mode, and an unaccountable blindnefs that attends a prefent mode, could hinder them from obferving the unworthinefs of their conduct, and the bafenefs of mind they betray j or make them imagine that fame will attend on prevarication, and a fly deceit in writing, which is abject and infamous in life, and will for ever be the mark of a con- temptible character. In this tract of H vile 98 C L I O : OR, A vile duplicity and proftitution of heart have trod Hobbes, Shaftefbury, Boling- broke, and fome authors, French and Englifh, now alive, who being ftill in the lifts, and capable of feeking fame by generous and liberal methods, I {hall not name. The ftrange manner and the artifice of thefe writers at firft fur- prize j but the human heart, that natu- rally detefts difhonefty, refufes them fame; and in half an age they are confTdered only as the patrons of licentioufnefs ; and to make their infamy remarkable, they are only remembered and honoured by the vicious. Decency is the habit which a noble train of thinking fixes upon the mind ; and it is related to religion, becaufe religion more than any other object ennobles our ideas. Piety is eminently necefTary in a writer who is a candidate for the fame of ages. Inftead of quoting Quintilian and DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 99 and Tully in proof of my afiertion, who certainly underftood the qualifications of a good writer as well as any modern gen- tlemen, and were not prejudiced by chri- ftianity, I will lay open the reafon of it. The ideas of religion are all vaft and af- fecting; and they open to the mind pro- fpecls by far more grand than thofe of this life. How does the mind expand to grafp an idea of eternity, infini- ty, or omniprefence ? What fublime dignity does the intercourfe of the deity beftow on the human {late ? If you look into Milton's Paradife Loft, you will be fenfible what grand ideas even hell has furnifhed the poet with. En- thufiafm is the very foul of poetry, and there is fuch an indiflbluble connec- tion between them, that the fame word in the learned languages was indifferently applied to a poet and to a prophet. Now, madam, let the ideas of religion be thrown out of doors, what can be fubftituted in H 2 their ioo CLIO: OR, A their ftead ? Wit, humour, and raillery are pleafmg in the levities and play-hours of the foul j but they muft not pretend to admirarion, which attends only on eleva- tion and grandeur of thought. Enthufiafm, more or lefs, is an infe- parable appendage of the mind of man. The novel proje&ors in philofophy and religion may ridicule it, and ferioufly ex- claim againft the folly of it ; but they only quarrel with nature; which, after all, right or wrong, will form our pleafures and pains. If they could, by their pre- fcriptions, amend and alter her laws, then might men take their plan into con- fideration : but fmce nature is inflexible, and will continue the fame notwithftand- ing their fine projects of improvement, they are but idle vain prattlers ; and fuch is the partiality of nature on this head, that the mind of man is incapable of any exalted pleafure that charms the foul in its DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 101 its hours of reflection, or that brings beauty to the dwelling of thought, unlefs it be enthufiaftic and beyond life. I do not plead for the manifeft abufes of en- thufiafm, no more than I do for the ex- orbitancies and ungoverned fallies of any other paflion or appetite j I only mean, that we are as much bound down by fate to receive our fublime pleafures by it, as we are obliged to find beauty in the human form. Now religion, particu- larly revelation, or an intercourfe be- tween God and man, is the very effence of natural Enthufiafm. Homer, Virgil, and Milton, were fo fenfible of this truth, that with the faireft endowment of natural genius and rapture that ever enriched mankind, they would not ven- ture on any thing worthy of univerfal ad- miration, without introducing an actual revelation, and raifing the fubjecT: by the grand ideas peculiar to religion, H 3 The 102 C L I O : OR, A The general air of truth, honefty, and decency are the paflports of a writer ; without which he can have no pretence to the efteem of readers of worth. Let us now confider the qualifications that render an author an interefting and ad- mired companion of our leifure hours. The firir, and r.obleft fource of delight in works of genius, without competition, ariies from the fublime. The fublime, by an authority which the foul is utterly unable to refift, takes pofleffion of our attention, and of all our faculties, and ab- forbs them in afronifhtnent. The paffion itinfpires us with is evidently a mixture of terror, curiofity, and exultation : but they are ftamped with a majefty, that be- ftows on them a different air and charac- ter from thofe paflions on any other oc- cafion. In the fublime we feel ourfelves alarmed, our motions are fufpended, and we remain for fome time until the emo- 2 tion DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 103 tion wears off, wrapped in filence and in- quifitive horror. The combination of paffions in the fublime, render the idea of it obfcure. No doubt the fenfation of fear is very diftinft in it ; but it is equally obvious, that there is fomething in the fublime more than this abjecT: paffion. In all other terrors the foul lofes its dignity, and as it were fhrinks below its ufual fize : but at the prefence of the fublime, although it be always awful, the foul of man feems to be raifed out of a trance ; it aflumes an unknown grandeur ; it is feized with a new appetite, that in a mo- ment effaces its former little profpe&s and defires ; it is rapt out of the fight and confideration of this diminutive world, into a kind of gigantic creation, where it finds room to dilate itfelf to a fize agreeable to its prefent nature and gran- deur : it overlooks the "Appenines, and H 4 the 104 C L I O : o R, A the clouds upon them, and fees nothing in view around it but immenfe objects. In the poets language it flies, it foars, it purfues a beauty in the madnefs of rap- ture, that words or defcription cannot contain ; and if thefe expreffions be ex- travagant and improper in the ordinary commerce of life, they yet exactly de- fcribe the intellectual and real ftate of the mind at the prefence of the fublime. The fublime enters into the principles of tafte with fuch diftindHon, and rules the human fpirit with fuch' abfolute fo- vereignty, that I would fain difcover the origin and nature of its power ; but fate feems to have covered it over with myftery, the greateft writers have either flopped fhort, or failed in the attempt, and I am fafe enough although I turn afide, and leave it in the facred ob- fcurity in which it has fo long been veiled : however, I may, by an hy- potheiis, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 105 pothefis, attempt to give you an intelli- gible idea of the manner in which it affe&s us j I have a licence from cuftom for doing fo j for I muft inform you, that modern philofophers often take the liberty of forming fyftems merely for the fake of illuftration, and to refolve difficulties, without thinking themfelves obliged to give a demonftration of the truth of their fyftem. If it tends to make that con- ceivable which was before inconceivable j the inventors fuppofe that they have done fome fervice to fcience. The fyftem I am going to lay before you, is that of a friend of mine, who was a true lover of knowledge. He found little fatisfa&ion in the philofophy of col- leges and fchools, particularly in thofe enquiries he thought of moft importance : he had withdrawn himfelf from the tri- fling buftle of the little world, to converfe with io5 CLIO: OR, A with his o\vn heart, and end a ftormy life in obfcure quiet. One day after dinner, \ve walked out to indulge on our favourite topics. Our excurfion terminated at a rock, whofe bafe is wafhed by the Weftern Ocean. It was one of thofe fine days in Auguft, when the cool of the evening brought on a refrefhing fweetnefs. We fat down to reft,' and enjoy the profpecl: of the fea, that ftretched before us be- yond the limits of the eye. The' fun was juft fetting, and his laft foftened beams flying to the fhore, feemed to •dip in a thoufand waves, and leave in the waters the blaze they loft. We had been reading Homer on our way to the fea-fide. When we fat down, our con- verfation turned on the ftrange power the fublime. It is eafy, fays the thought- ful philofopher, to defcribe the itnprefllons the fublime makes on the mind, and this is all the writers on this fubject have hitherto DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 107 hitherto done with any fuccefs ; but is it impofiible, from a due attention to the fymptoms, to unravel its meaning, and difcover the fpring of the filent and in- quifitive aftonimment it infprefTes on the fpirit of man? I am fenfible ajuft ex- plication of the fublime muft account for all its effects, as well for the noble ele- vation and the charming rapture, as for the terror it beftcws. If I can produce a caufe that accounts fufRciently for all the fymptoms, and no other can be given, then mine ought by all rules of good rcafoning to be admitted for the true one, however novel it appears. In order to proceed to the difcovery we defire to make, let us turn our views to objects remarkably fublime, and from them obtain what intelligence we can. Obferve this mountain that rifes fo high on the left, if we had been farther re- moved from it, you might fee behind it other io8 CLIO: OR, A other mountains rifing in ftrange confu- fion, the fartheft off almoft loft in the diftance, yet great in the obfcurity, your imagination labours to travel over them, and the inhabitants feem to refide in a fuperior world. But here you have a different profpect, the next mountain covers all the reft from your view, and by its nearer approach, prefents diftindtly to your eye objects of new admiration. The rocks on its fides meet the clouds in vaft irregularity ; the penfive eye traces the rugged precipice down to the bottom, and furveys there the mighty ruins that time has mouldered and tumbled below. It is eafy in this inftance to difcover that we are terrified and filenced into awe, at the veftiges we fee of immenfe power ; and the more ma- nifeft are the appearances of diforder, and the neglect of contrivance, the more plainly we feel the boundlefs might thefe rude monuments are owing to. * But be. fides DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 109 fides this filent fear, we feel our curiofity roufed from its deepeft fprings in the foul j and while we tremble, we are feized with an exquifite delight, that attends on fublime objects only. The fame mixed fenfation weighs upon us, when we fee an ocean difturbed and agitated in ftorms ; or a foreft roaring, and bending under the force of the tempeft. We are flruck by it with more calmnefs, but equal grandeur, in the ftarry heavens : the filence, the unmeafured diftance, and the unknown power united in that profpecl, render it very awful in the deepeft ferenity. Thun- der, with broken burfts of lightning through black clouds j the view of a cataract, whofe billows fling themfelves down with eternal rage ; or the uneafing found of the falling waters by night ; the howling of animals in the dark : all thefe produce the fublime, by the aflbciation of the idea of invifible immenfe power. The no C L I O : o R, A The foul of man naturally pays homage to unfeen power. Ke feels obfcure hopes, and obfcure fears, which become a re- ligious pailion, and diftinguifh him more than any other difference between him and the other inhabitants of the earth. The re- ligious paffion, attended with lefs tumult, but more conftancy than the other paffions, calls upon his heart in the majefty of darknefs and fiience, and is the fource of the fublime fenfation we are treating of. I fee feveral objections crouding to your mind againft my hypothefis ; but hear me out, for I intend to obviate them all. The object of the religious paffion is no idea, it is unknown ; therefore the paffion itfelf is obfcure, and wants a name j but its effects are very remarkable, for they form the peculiar character of human nature. Curiofity and hope carry with them the plaineft fymptoms of a paffion DISCOURSE ON TASTE, in pafiion that wanders, and is aftray for its object. In their anxious fearch, they unite themfelves with every great profpec~l in life, whofe completion lies in the dark : but when we arrive at the point we pro- pofed, we are fully fenfiblc that curiofity and hope have been deceived, the enjoy- ment in our power whatever it be, falls infinitely below our expectations, yet the alacrity of the mind feels no decay by dif- appointment ; we fet out immediately with renewed vigour in purfuit of fome- thing farther, 2nd nothing but death- puts an end to the anxiety. Thefe paf- fions are exceedingly alarmed, at the ap- pearances of the exec/five power that gives us the idea of the fublime. In the dif- order and confufion of feas in ftorms, or when lofty woods ftruggle with high winds, we are ftruck v/ith an humiliating awe, furprize, and fufpenfe : the mind views the effects of boundlefs power with ftill amazement : it recoils upon itfelf in 112 C L I O: OR, A in a paflion made up of terror, joy, and rapture, and feels in fentiment thefe queftions : Who is the author of this ? IVliat is be to me ? Is he the objefl of my eternal curiojity, of my mighty fears^ and hopes ? I appeal to the feelings of every man, if his pafiions in thefe circumftances be not exactly applicable to this confufed interefled ftate of mind, whether he dif- entangles or reflects on his own ideas There is nothing more difputed than the origin of the idea of divinity. All nations, however barbarous, have it ; and our lateft difcoveries prove that the re- lations of atheift nations are all fabulous, and that the favages of every quarter of the globe look up to a fupernatural power. From the univerfality of the idea, men who did not fufficiently examine its origin fufpe&ed, and actually taught, that we had an innate idea of God. The groflhefs DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 113 groflhefs and want of precifion with which they advanced this doctrine, afforded Mr. Locke the happieft opportunity imagin- able of triumphing over them, and of deducing religion and the idea of the de- ity from fenfible ideas, and from the mere agency of reafon, agreeable to his general fyftem. It is true, we have not an in- nate idea of God ; but we a thoufand times feel the intruded influence of a mighty unknown power, that muft, by the unavoidable tranfition the mind makes from the effecl: to the caufe, give rife to the idea of divine power. Senfible ideas, indeed, and the paffing (hew of this ex- ternal world, divert the attention of the mind from its religious feelings ; but as fenfible ideas recede from the imagination, and leave us to a folitary intellectual ftate of mind, we find an awful and obfcure prefence furround us, that beftows on the foul an elevation and enthufiafm that do not attend on external ideas. I All ji4 C L I Q : o R, A All mankind, whofe common fenfe i« not diverted by fyftem, will agree, that darknefs, folitude, and filence, natu- rally opprefs the mind by a tremendous and fublime fenfation. It is further evi- dent, that they produce not this effe& by any active power of their's, but merely by ftripping the imagination of its fen- fible ideas, of the noife, the mirth, and light that diverted its attention, and leav- ing it to its naked ft ate and feelings 5. confequently, that the great influence that then rifes upon the foul, and dwells upon it in terrors, is the effect of a power that has been always prefent to it, altho' it has not been always obferved, on ac- count of the interpofition of the tranfitory ideas of fenfe. In fhort, it appears from a great variety of obfervations and re- flected lights, that the human foul is always opprefled by a mighty prefence, whofe obfcurity and ftillnefs only keep it out of our attention when the mind is employed DISCOURSE ONTASTE. n^ employed on exterior objects. To avoid this awful prefence it is, that we for ever feek amufement and company, and that any diverfion, however infipid and trifling- in itfelf, becomes to us a pleafing relief, merely by taking up our attention. Rea- fon fmiles at the puerility of our amufe- ments. The very flaves of pleafure hold them in contempt, and acknowledge they will not bear examination : yet the wife and the vain find folitude alike infup- portable, and alike defire the company and diverfion they defpife. Becaufe the philofophers of our days can affign no form, nor fize, nor colour, to the object of their fublime awe, they conclude it to be vain and fuperftitious : they take upon them to decide pofitively, that nature in the formation of the hu- man mind has acted an unmeaning part ; and where fhe appears remarkably folemn and regular, in her nobleft production, I 2 has n6 CLIO: OR, A has been abfurd and puerile. Her vaft fa- gacity, and the defign that always ap- pears in her works of a lower order, ought furely to procure her a degree of confi- dence, and give fome fufpicions that flie did not act wholly at random in the plan of the human mind. The troth is, the imprefiion of this obfcure prefence, how- ever it be felt, is beyond the verge of the philofophy of the ideas of fenfe. The dif- ciples of this philofophy cannot upon their principles admit that an object which nei- ther the memory can treafure up, nor the imagination form, has been prefent to the mind. They are not able to conceive that an object has been there which was not • reprefented by a fenfible idea, and which makes itfelf felt only by its influence. But let it be confidered, however the confequences may clafh with this or that fyftem, that awe is a relative idea, and bears as neceflary a relation to fomething cither ideal or intellectual that imprefles terror, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 117 terror, as vifion does to fomething feen. Let it be further attended to, that the awe which furrounds us in folitude, in deep filence, and in darknefs, is not ac- quired by habit, by aflbciation, religious tenets, or prejudices j feeing that it is not confined to particular nations or ages, but that it is infeparable from the human race at all aeras of time, be their religion what it will j and that thofe men who have moft effisitually caft off the weak- nefles of the human kind, have difcovered the plaineft fymptoms of the awe I fpeak of: but we muft carefully diftinguifli be- tween common accidental fear, and this noble fenfation that elevates whilft it over-awes. Men often bear filence, fo- litude, and night, without diftinct or ideal fear, fuch as is occafioned by tales of ghofts or goblins : but the ftill impor- tant attention, and folemn fwellof mind, that is a concomitant of obfcurity, of Jonelinefs, and of deep filence, appears I 3 b7 iiS C L I O: OR, A by the writings and fentiments of the greateft of mankind, to be an involun- £ary and univerfal imprefiion on the in- telle£t. It is not, as Mr. Locke fays, that the tales of nurfes have made night Jhe fcene of terrors, but that the folemn- jty and real awfulnefs of the night, has made it the natural fcene of frightful talcs and apparitions in all nations. It is to meet the fublime imprefiion undif- turbed, the poet retires to the folitary walks of the country ; that he feeks for vales hid from human eye, where filence feems to take up her dwelling ; and loves to frequent the woods covered with dark- nefs and fhade : there he feels, with all the certainty of intuition, the prefence of the univerfal genius, whofe immediate influence tunes his voice to mufic, and fires the imagination to rapture. All the ideas that arrive to the mind by the or- nary avenues of fenfe, are the obje&s of common apprehenfion and difcourfe ; DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 119 but in the prefenceof theuniverfal genius, thofe ideas grow brighter than the gilding of the fun can make them, and put on a Grange beauty that belong not to them. It is the beauty of a being, indiftincT:, and hid as it were in light, which the ima- gination in vain feeks to lay hold of : whence you may conceive the diftrefs, that obliges the poet to fly from image to image, to exprefs what he feels. No idea, however grand, anfwers his pur- pofe ; yet as he feels ftrongly, he ftill hopes, and rufhes to fnatch into view another grand profpecT:. The variety of his efforts (hews the object the mind labours with to be different from any thing we know ; to be beyond the power of utterance ; and yet the very labour and confufion of images, and the defpair he betrays, paint fufficiently the poet's perception ; and we are fenfible of what he cannot exprefs, becaufe we all feel it in our own bofoms. I 4 The 120 CLIO: OR, A The fublime influence of groves and lonely vales is not fantaftic, or a work of the imagination : it is a moft con- ftant uniform effect in the fame circum- ftances j and the change it makes in our ideas, or rather the creation of new beauty it beftows on them, which was never had from fenfe j and the mighty powers it beftows on us, are evidently fupernatu- ral. To fay that the infpiration of po- etry and enthufiafm, which are the moft furprizing and violent effects we know of, are produced by a non-entity, or by the native force of the imagination, is utterly unphilofophic and abfurd. Jt is further manifeft, upon reflection, that the fupernatural prefence is not confined to wood or dale j not to thefe long mountains befide us ; nor to the winding fhores, and hollow feas : it always meets the penfive meditating mind ; in the re- moteft parts of the earth we are at no diftance from it, and i.a the darknefs of night DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 121 night it poflefles us. Say, ye ftars of heaven, almoft loft in immenfe diftance, does not the Father of Being fuftain and cherifh worlds around you, who receive life and rapture from his prefence ? If the univerfal fpirit had not always dwelt in the foul, enthufiafm would not be infe&ious, nor could fanatic preachers communicate it at all times to their au- dience. The enthufiaftic orator ex- prefles his own feelings, and his difcourfe is infectious ; not by th« production of any new and foreign paflion, but by fix- ing the attention to the great fenfations of the foul. If they were not there be- fore, the preacher could no more raife them, than he could give a man born blind the idea of colours. Perfons of a religious and folitary caft of thought of- ten experience thefe infpirations, when prayer or meditation have led the foul in- to retirement, and taken external ideas out 122 CLIO: OR, A out of its attention : and the religious fa- natic experiences the fame divine favour that the poet does in his gloomy foreft, •or befide his confecrated ftream. The fagacious antients were fo fenfible of the identity of the fpirit that infpired both, that they gave the fame appellation to the prophet and poet, as I faid before. When we have carried our views thus far, it is eafy to difcover the fprings of polytheifm. The imagination found the divine idea rifmg before it in a variety of circumftances, and worfhiped it under the feveral diftindtions in which it ap- peared. The Greeks, the fathers of thought and fublime knowledge, always nicely obferved the difference between the native powers of the mind over its frock of fenfible ideas, and the fublime influence to which it was paffive. They traced the latter through its various ap- .pcarances, and never failed to attribute it DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 123 it to divine power ; fometimes to the Mufes, fometimes to Apollo, to the Fu- ries, to Pan, to the Sylvan deities, and to the genius of the place ; they never miftook the fupernatural prefence, but only divided it out, according as the imagination happened to be ftruck, and to the concomitant external ideas. It was not fear made the gods, but God made his prefence known by an awe that does not attend on fenfible ob- jefls. If man falls down to worfhip in the groves, it is becaufe the facred im- prefiion he feels in folitude and obfcu- rity makes him fenfible of the prefence of invifible power. From what I have juft faid, it is eafy to conceive the rea- fon why men educated in the country, and thofe efpecially whofe employments are in the fields, are in general more re- ligious than the inhabitants of towns and cities. Terror 124 CLIO: OR, A Terror is the firft impreflion that meets us in the folitary prefence j and the bulk of mankind have only feeling enough when they are alone to create uneafmefs, and a confufed gloom that drives them to feek for company and amufement ; but men of more delicate fenfations find ad- miration and extafy along with fear. Delight and fear are paflions of almoft oppofite natures ; yet they are united in this unknown object, in an immeafureable degree. By all the known rules of reafon- ing from mechanic principles, the fear of unknown power ought to be much more faint and dull than the fear of known power; and in men educated in doubt or difbelief of a future {rate, this fear of unknown power fhould be hardly per- ceptible, or active ; and thus it would certainly be, if it were the ifTue of fen- fible ideas, or of reafon : but in facl, all tnsn who have leifure to obferve their own internal fenfations, find the ter- ror DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 12$ ror of unknown power far beyond all limits, and beyond all degrees of known evil. When we fee the limits of evil, we immediately fee that it lofes a great deal in our imagination. Men eafily bear imprifonment, poverty, fick- nefs, and even great degrees of pain ; but the obfcure defpair, whofe object we know not, is blacker than the grave, and more terrible than death, and to plunge from it men commit fuicide. Every ca- lamity of this life is fupportable, and we fuffer them by choice rather than death, until they bring us to a penfive folitary ftate of mind, in which we feel the preffure of unknown power ; and then men often make the cruel choice, and feek death as a welcome releafe from the gloomy terrors that fink them. Fa- natic preachers make admirable ufe of this ftate of mind ; for experience fhews, that when melancholy has continued fome time, and the foul feems to itfelf ut- terly 126 C L I O: OR, A terly loft, fecret fits of joy and tranf- port beam in upon it through the gloom. Dealers in the fpirit therefore take fpe- cial care to raife enthufiaftic terrors firft in their followers, and to bring defpair and reprobation full in the foul's view ; under which fome of them actually kill themfelves ; but as the mind cannot long remain in this ftate, and the intenfe pofleffion of religious melancholy natu- rally turns to extafy and rapture, enthu- fiafts, from a ftate of defpair, pafs fud- denly to a ftate of joy and tranfport, which is eafily miftaken for election and the kind voice of the Divinity. It is lucky for fanatic preachers of all ages, that the bulk of mankind are ignorant, and incapable of obferving, that the di- vine prefence they boaft of has been com- mon to every religion ; that religion only unites an univerfal pafllon to this or that fet of doctrines and ideas j and that there is a fyftsmatic method of acquir- 7 inS DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 1:7 ing the predeftination and divine im- pulfe they feel with great certainty. The rapture of enthufiafm is as contra- dictory to all rules of reafoning from the received principles, as its fears. If it were the ilTue of our fenfible ideas, and reflec- tions made on them, it would never rife to the force of fenfible beauty ; and all the warmeft imagination could do, is to make approaches to the charms of co- lours, and of form, and to the beau- ties of rmell and tafte. But the obfcure unknown good that mortals feek with fuch anxiety is more than every joy and every good befides. It is the love-fick wifhv that brightens hope, the fearch of which makes us pafs refolutely through all the evils of life. Shall I call it fupreme beauty ? This is but a figurative name, of that beauty of which we have no con- ception. But does not the want of con- ception make it indifferent to us ? No ; 128 C L I O: OR, A an intelligence clearer than fenfe, and ftronger than reafon, charadterifes it with rapture, and with inexpreflible joy ; and let us conceive of it as we will in theory, it is the load-ftone to which the foul for ever tends with anxiety, in every unknown good and obfcure profpeft. I obferved before, that the remarkable curiofity and hope of our kind, are the fymptoms of a wandering paflion for a fugitive object neceflary to our happi- nefs that is for ever near us, and for ever hides from us ; hence proceed the perpetual difcontent and care that harbour in the human breaft : for it is evident, that be our pofleflions what they will, we cannot be content while we defire or hope for any thing more than we poflefs 5 and that while this object of defire is unknown, the fymptoms muft be exactly what they are, and man's pur- fuits muft be wild, inconfiftent, and un- fatisfied. DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 129 fatisfied. This fond unknown objedt., on account of the vaftnefs of the paflion with which it is fought for, was by the antients called the fummiim bonum, or chief felicity. Whether there be fuch an enjoyment in reality or no, the phan- tom, or vifionary expectation of it, is perfued by mortals with endlefs and un- wearied care. It was a noble effort of human reafon, bewildered in ignorance, to enquire for the object of its fublime hopes. One who has a clear idea of the meaning of the antients in this great enquiry, can hardly refrain from fmiling at Mr. Locke's ludicrous explication of it. If the queftion had been what is the moft delicious fare ; or whether the beft relifh were to be found in apples, plumbs, or nutsj the preference un- doubtedly ought to be given by every one to that which pleafes him beft j fof there is no difputing taftes : but the queftion here is, what is the vaft object K of 130 C L I O : o R, A of content and blifs, for which all man- kind have one common paflion, and which every one who is not employed to procure the neceflaries of life, fets out in fearch of with crouded fails. The orphan mind, in its fond expectations, imagines it fees a confufed view of it in the firft ideas of every thing that is beautiful, until pofleflion convinces us of our miftake ; but no difappointments cure the paflion itfelfj we are actuated by a fenfe more prefent to us than demonft ration, that the object of it is always near us. Man is ennobled and diftinguifhed from the other inhabitants of this earth by the univerfal paflion I fpeak of. If he were bereft of it, he would fall to the con- dition of a fagacious brute. He would, in fuch cafe, as foon as he had eaten and drank to fatisfy nature, lie down on the next funny bank, and repofe in thoughtlefs content. We fhould have no heroes,, no 2 mifers, DISCOURSE ONTASTE. 131 mifers, and no mighty projects. Human love, that now refines and ennobles the foul, would never rife beyond the bru- tal appetite. Happinefs would be cheaply attained, and we fhould never be uneafy, but when in a&ual diftrefs. But then our happinefs would be poor and taftelefs j and indeed the mere glimmering hope of the obfcure enthufiaftic delight which we never enjoy, with all its endlefs cares and difappointments, is infinitely more noble and raviming, than the unbroken fupine content of fenfible enjoyment. What makes content found fo fine in the human ear, is the fatiation of the mighty unknown want, which we are obliged to unite in our idea of content, becaufe without it we can never enjoy undifturbed unwifhing tranquillity. But this heart- eafing, this gilded content, is not the content of brutes ; for as they have no defires but to allay the prefent appetite, their eafe is ftupid indifference. The an- K 2 nihilation i^2 C L I O : o R, A nihilation of that bright-beaming human hope, that travels on before us during life, would be attended with a want of curio- fity j nothing would be new to us, nor nothing old : we fhould run into few errors, and few cares ; we fhould be wife, content, and worthlefs. Thus are our mifery, our folly, and our grandeur, connected and infeparable. I have given you, madam, this enthu- fiaftic gentleman's rhapfody on the fu- blime, which I leave to your reflection, with this caution only, that before you judge, you confult the feelings of your own mind, in the fame retired and calm ftate he did. I now proceed to a fepa- rate fource of the fublime, which wedif- cover in our own breads, and obferve with particular pleafure, becaufe it is an undoubted evidence of the grandeur of human nature. I took fome notice of it before, when I fpoke of elegance. DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 133 We find in ourfeives a fenfe of the bafe and of the noble j to the one are annexed by nature {hame and blufhes 3 to the other, pride and exultation. We may in- deed be cheated by appearances ; bafe ac- tions may be difguifed, or wholly co- vered from view, and loft in the conco- mitant circumftances ; but the fenfe it- felf is conftantly true to appearances ; we are for ever prejudiced againft the mean and bafe, and we alway exult in a noble and difmterefted part. That this direction of the fentiment was not formed by the precepts of philofophers, or by the management of politicians, as fenfual writers pretend, is evident from hence, that it is not in the power of art or ma- nagement to alter or warp it. We can no more be brought to approve what ap- pears to us bafe, or to condemn noble and benevolent actions, while they appear fo, than we can be managed to like the K 3 fcreaming 134 C L I O : o R, A fcreaming of the owl, or the jarring of iron bars. It is this fentimental light without re- flection which difcovers to us, that it is great and exalted to contemn fenfual plea- fures, riches, and mundane interefts ; and makes fevere, felf-denying, fuffering vir- tue appear an object: of admiration. Ge- nerofity, even when ill-placed, is ftill noble, becaufe it demonftrates a con- tempt for riches ; and the love of truth is fo, becaufe it fhews a fettled firm ha- bit of virtue j for falfehood is the dif- guife which fhame beftows on vice. The foul, actuated and determined by its own haughty and elevated fentiments of virtue and dignity, aflerts fates and profpe&s fuperior to the low interefts of this world. We are therefore charmed in the nobility of fentiment, by this clear and manifeft majefty of the foul, juft as beauty DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 135 beauty is delighted With the flattering view of itfelf in a mirror. The ele- vation every man feels in himfelf at a no- ble fentiment, is a plain intuition of the fublimity of his own fpirit, and on that account it ftrikes him with rapture and exultation. If all ages have acknow- ledged the grandeur of Alexander's an- fwer to Parmenio, it is becaufe men in general feel in themfelves a loftier paffion than that which can be fatisfied with kingdoms and fceptres. If we fhould imagine that it was a mere paffion for empire ftimulated that great conqueror to his enterprizes, he himfelf informs us, with difcontent, when he had no more to conquer, that he was not fatisfied with empires and kingdoms. A paffion to en- joy the fovereignty of the whole world had nothing admirable in it; but the noble diflatisfaclion he exprefled at the limits he found to his ambition, furniflied an idea K 4 to 136 C L I O : o R, A to poets, to painters, and ftatuaries, to form a grand pi&ure of the hero. Next to the fublime, the paflions form the moft fruitful fource of beauty in works of genius. The foul in paflion difplayS refources that furprife by their novelty and greatnefs. It employs an ingenuity "and light that is not within the reach of reafon, and endues us with powers of ex- ecution far above our ordinary ftrength. From this fudden profpect of the extent and grandeur of the human fpirit proceeds our attention to the workings of paflion ; we are eager to fee it come forward in the tumult, and become vifible on the coun- tenance j and we find the difcovery of its new powers of great importance to us. The paflions are alfo ftrangely infectious; they lay hold on our affections by vio- lence ; they bear us away from a ftate of indifference, and plunge us into con- cern and emotion. The mind that be- fore DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 13 fore refted upon itfelf felfifli and alone, at the appearance of paflion, in a moment feels its relation to mankind : it extends its feelings beyond ourfelves, and finds itfelf irrefiftably engaged by the interefts of others. The fenfe of this relation, and particularly of its compaffion, which is an undoubted evidence of the grandeur and generofity of its own nature, delights it exceedingly, even in the midft of its diftrefles for the forrows of others. The mixture of pity, of this fublime exult- ation, and the curioflty that naturally im- pels us to defcry the workings and ma- noeuvres of the foul in diftrefs, form the noble penfive pleafure we feel at a tra- gedy, and the charm that engages us in a melancholy relation. The paffions of brutes have little elevating or important in them ; but it is not fo always in de- fcription, beeaufe in the defcription it is not the brute that is fo much in view, as 138 C L I O : OR, A as the human mind and the human paf* fions. Another remarkable divifion of the beauties of fine writing confifts in the imagery. Darknefs, that ftrips the ima- gination of vifible objects, becomes irk- fome and melancholy. Light, that re- ftores the picture of nature, diflipates the gloom, and brings back joy along with it. The mind naturally abhors a folitary ftate, and finds relief and enjoy- ment in a variety and fucceflion of ob- jects, which accounts for the diftin- guiflied beauty of imagery in writing. The objects of defcription take life upon the imagination j a new creation arifes in profpect, and we are charmed at the en- chantment of words. Great writers al- ways paint ftrongly their thoughts, and make them objects of view. You fee Ho- mer's heroes in action before you : when you begin to read him, you find yourfelf infer. - fibly DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 1.39 fibly taken by the hand, and led where he has a mind to fix your attention. You tra- verfe his fields of action, and almoft fight his battles. Shakefpeare preferves in his characters the fame ftrong caft of feature and turn of mind from the firft fpeech forward. You are acquainted with every one after the firft appearance, and your attention is engaged as if you were amongft your friends, and bufied in the tranfa&ions of neigh- bours. Almoft every fentence in Mil- ton's poetic works is a picture. But it is neceflary to obferve, that in writing we are not fo much moved by the exact pic- ture of real life, or of objects, as we are by the colouring and ftrokes of the ima- gination. To make myfelf ur.derftood, I muft obferve, that there is a greater fenfibility in feme men than in others ; two perfons fee the fame objects, the fame misfortunes, with very different feelings ; their defcriptions may be equally exact, but with very different effects. A man of 140 C L I O : OR, A of fenfibility finds words, and a language tender, paffionate, and expreffive of his feelings : you imagine he paints ob- jects and actions, while he in reality paints pafiion, and affects us by the image of his own imagination. Great writers in fact feldom defcend to a trivial exact- nefs ; it is fufficient that they diftinguifh the objects they offer to view by fome ge- neral lines, and then they move us by the enlivening fenfations that touch us by fympathy. The poet, who calls your imagination to his beloved groves and cryftal fprings, does not diftinguifh his trees into oak, afh, or elm j he fhews them neither regularly nor in confufion ; nor does he meafure the windings of his ftream, nor mark out the fords, the {hallows, and depths : he juft mentions the rural fcene, and then proceeds to paint the engaging image of calm con- tent, and of eafy unfurfeiting joys, that are not objects of fenfe, and yet are the real DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 141 real objects of beauty. This animated exprefllon is the very chara&eriftic of great writers ; but it is not by any means confined to great and important fubjects ; the mod familiar ideas are equally capa- ble of the tincture of fenfibility. The flowing eafy drefs of the imagination, and the foft colouring the mind gives to com- mon occurrences, are as becoming and beautiful over a lady's thoughts in her letters, as more ftudied and laboured painting in the compofition of philofo- phers. It is not uncommon to find la- dies paint finely in converfation, in the carelefs current of their thoughts ; and indeed the vivacity and delicacy of ima- gination peculiar to your fex, feem to have put this kind of charm into your hands. In the little remains of Sappho we fee dangerous proofs of the enchant- ment of her painting ; and probably it is happy that the reft of the works of that ingenious Grecian lady are l<?ft. Thefe 142 C L I O: OR, A Thefe three, the fublime, the paffions, and the imagery, form the diftinguiflied beauty of works of genius j but colours may be too glaring, and beauty itfelf overcharged or mifplaced. The imagery fhould never confufe the attention, or withdraw it from the main defign. They fhould imitate drefs, whofe art it is not to hide, but to lead the eye to the ob- ject of drefs. Different fubje&s require different ornaments j a plain habit be- comes a philofopher or an ecclefiaftic, but you may with great propriety drefs a lady going to a ball in tiffue and diamonds. You can hardly be too lavifh of your rofes on the mantle of fpring ; but " you muft leave the dreary heath its unvarie- gated dufky robe. Mixed images con- found your view, and give you unformed feparate parts, inftead of juft pictures. The paffions muft be governed with the fame chaftity : the language of the heart is plain, it is fimple ; it is exprefled in a few DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 143 few and unadorned words : but this fim- plicity, this plainnefs, is what men who feel not the paffions find a difficulty to paint. To perfuade you of their emo- tion, they rave and blufter like young players. It is one of Shakefpeare's faults, that in the midft of his nobleft diftrefles, he often introduces philofophic reflec- tions, and defcriptions that are gene- rally very beautiful, but ill-placed. I do not take notice of this error to lower in your efteem this extraordinary genius, who knew human nature better than all the philofophers put together, and has given jufter pictures of it ; but to guard you againft the power of his charms, which are too apt to recommend his faults. It is from a great man we are to appre- hend danger of being mifled. Befides the ftriking beauties I men- tioned, a writer of genius is always dif- dnguifhed by a ftrong impreffion of his genius 144 C L I O : o R, A genius and a propriety of colouring, which form his peculiar character, and ani- mate his works. Ordinary writers re- peat a language whofe ideas have nothing particular to catch the attention : they are read, but become unobferved, like objects that we pafs by in the duflt of the even- ing: but a great writer fixes the image of his imagination upon his thoughts. You fee plainly he does not repeat words that he learned, and are in every one's mouth, but ideas juft as they lay in his own mind. The maftery of a writer, and the com- pafs of his genius, appear confpicuoufly in two points; the propriety and juft- nefs of his ftyle, and the unbroken con- tinuation and advance of his defign from the beginning to the conclufion. By propriety of ftyle I do not mean an infi- pid evennefs, and a murmur for ever re- turning upon the ear. The fame waters glide DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 145 glide gently through meadows, and fling themfelves with tumult and bellowing over precipices. When in the courfe of a writer's fubjed"l he comes to lofty ideas, his tone of voice muft become elevated and fuperior : or when he leads you to peaceful country profpects, his voice muft be low like his reed ; but lofty or low, you muft hear the fame voice. The variations muft not be like the ftrange tranfitions from a pipe to a trumpet, but like the fame in- ftrument perfectly in tune, that fwells and falls into continued harmony. For the fame reafon he muft avoid all harfh and dragged-in metaphors ; they break the tenor; they difturb the view, and turn our thoughts upon the labour of the writer, If we had proper expref- fions for every idea, metaphors had ne- ver been thought of. It is neceflity gives them currency ; and they mould not be ufed but when they are ftronger and clearer than any proper expreffion, and L when 146 C L I O : o R, A when they feem to drop off the imagina- tion upon the paper. Befides a juftnefs of ftyle, a writer who aims at perfection, and defifes to leave a folid pleafure on the mind, never fuffers his attention to flray from his defign ; he always pro- ceeds forward towards the goal, whether his pace be gentle and flowing, or im- petuous and rapid. A view of feparated or mutilated parts, however beautiful, leave a fenfible want in the mind, which is naturally delighted with feeing the complete and whole union of defign. It is agreed upon by moft writers of good tafte, that the beauties of genius are only difpofed with propriety when they adorn virtue; but the reafon js not fo generally underftood : it is this, vice is for ever ignoble, bafe, and terminates in mundane gratifications; for which reafon, that drefs which is formed by our ideas of beauty and grandeur, or by DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 147 by the noble fentiments that imply a fu- periority of foul, is manifeftly mifplaced in adorning vice, and is difhoneftly ftolen from the wardrobe of virtue. A love of fenfuality cannot be noble or great, nor can any means ufed to juftify or to in- It be great, noble, or virtu- ous. Wherefore, the beautiful language fometimes made ufe of by late writers for this purpofe appears to be falfe and im- proper : when we read them, tafte revolts againft inclination, and difcovers the im- pofture. In fhort, the fine attire beftowed on vice by genius, is like blooming gar- lands bound round a withered leaflefs tree. I am going, madam, to dictate to la- dies with an air of decifion which I have no where elfe aflumed, becaufe the fenti- ment is yours ; and indeed it may be eafily diftinguiftied by the delicacy. You remember the difguft you exprefled at the affectation of learning in your own fex : L a I will 14? CLIO: OR, A I will venture to unfold your thought, but you muft not expeft the fame grace with which it fell from your lips. A lady fliouid rather appear to think •well than to fpeak well of books : flie may fhew the engaging light that good tafte and fenfibility always diffufe over converfation ; flie may give inftances of her fenfe of great and affecting paf- fages, becaufe they difplay the ftnenefs of her imagination, or the goodnefs of her heart ; but all criticifm beyond this fits as aukwardly upon her as her grandfather's large fpectacles. I would by all means have a lady know more than flie difplays, becaufe it gives her unafFe&ed powers in difcourfe, for the fame reafon that a man's efforts are eafy and firm, when his aftion requires not his full ftrength. She fhould by habit form her mind to the no- ble and the pathetic ; and fliefliould have an acquaintance with the fine arts, be- caufe DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 149 caufe they enrich and beautify the ima- gination ; but fhe fhould carefully keep them out of view in the fhape of learn- ing, and let them run through the eafy vein of unpremeditated thought : for this reafon fhe fhould never ufe nor even underftand the terms of art : the gentle- men will occafionally explain them to her, I knew a lady of vaft addrefs who when a term of art came to be mentioned, al- ways turned to the gentleman fhe had a mind to compliment, and with uncom- mon grace afked him the meaning of it ; by this means {he gave men the air of fu- periority they like fo well, while fhe held them in chains. No humour can be more delicate than this, which plays upon the tyrant, who requires an acknowledged fu- periority of fenfe as well as power from the weaker fex. There are few who have not felt the charms of mufic, and acknowledged its L 3 ex- 150 C L I O : o R, A expreffions to be intelligible to the heart. It is a language of delightful fenfations, that is far more eloquent than words : it breathes to the ear the cleareft intima- tions ; but how it was learned, to what origin we owe it, or what is the mean- ing of fome of its moft affecting {trains, we know not. We feel plainly that mufic touches and gently agitates the agreeable and fublime pafllons ; that it wraps us in melancholy, and elevates in joy ; that it difiblyes and inflames ; that it melts us in tendernefs, and roufes to rage : but its ftrokes are fo fine and delicate, that, like a tragedy, even the paffions that are wounded pleafe; its forrows are charming, and its rage heroic and delightful ; as people feel the particular paffions with different degrees of force, 'their tafte of harmony muft proportionably vary. Mufic then is a language directed to the paffions \ but the DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 151 the rudeft paffions put on a new nature, and become pleafmg in harmony : let me add, alfo, that it awakens fome paffions which we perceive not, in ordinary life. Particularly the moft elevated fenfation of mufic arifes from a confufed percep- tion of ideal or vifionary beauty and rap- ture, which is fufficiently perceivable to fire the imagination, but not clear enough to become an object of knowledge. This fhadowy beauty the mind attempts, with a languifliing curiofity, to collect into a diftinct object of view and comprehen- fion ; but it finks and efcapes, like the difTolving ideas of a delightful dream, that are neither within the reach of the memory, nor yet totally fled. The no- bleft charm of mufic then, though real and affe.&ing, feems too confufed and fluid to be collected into a diftinct idea. Harmony is always underftood by the croud, and almoft always miftaken by muficians, who are, with hardly any ex- L 4 ception, *5* C L I O : o R, A ception, fervile followers of the tafte of mode, and who having expended much time and pains on the mechanic and prac- tical part, lay a. ftrefs on the dexterities of hand, which yet have no real value, but as they ferve to produce thofe col- lections of found that move the paflions. The prefent Italian tafte for mufic isex- a#ly correfpondent to the tafte of tragi- comedy, that about a century ago gained ground upon the ft-age. The muficians of the prefent day are charmed at the union they form between the grave and the fantaftic, and at the furprifing tranfi- tions they make between extremes, while every hearer who has the leaft remainder of the tafte of nature left, is fhocked at the ftrange jargon. If the fame tafte fhould prevail in painting, we muft foon expect to fee the woman's head, a horfe's body, and a fifh's tail, united by foft gradations, greatly admired at our pub- lic exhibitions. Mufica] gentlemen fhouid take DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 153 take particular care to preferve in its full vigour and ienfibility their original na- tural tafte, which alone feels and difco- vers the true beauty of mufic. If Milton, Shakefpeare, or Dryden, had been born with the fame ger.ius and in- fpiration for mufic as for poetry, and had patted through the practical part without corrupting the natural tafte, or blending with it a prepoffeflion in favour of the flights and dexteries of hand, then would their notes be tuned to paifions arid to fentiments as natural and expref- five as the tones and modulations of the voice in difcourfe. The mufic and the thought would not make different impref- fions : the hearers would only think impe- tuoufly ; and the effecT: of the mufic would be to give the ideas a tumultuous violence and divine impulfe upon the mind. Any perfon converfant with the claflic poets, fees inftantly that the paffionate power of 154 C L I O : o R, A of mufte I fpeak of, was perfectly un- derftood and practifed by the antients ; that the mufes of the Greeks always fung, and their fong was the echo of the fubject, which fwelled their poetry into enthu- flafm and rapture. An enquiry into the nature and merits of the ancient mufic, and a comparifon thereof with modern compofition, by a perfon of poetic genius and an admirer of harmony, who is free from the (hackles of practice, and the prejudices of the mode, aided by the countenance of a few men of rank, of elevated and true tafte, would probably lay the prefent half-Gothic mode of mu- fie in ruins, like thofe towers of whofe little laboured ornaments it is an exact picture, and reftore the Grecian tafte of paflionate harmony once more, to the de- light and wonder of mankind. But as from the difpofition of things, and the force of fafhion, we cannot hope in our time to refcue the facred lyre, and fee it 7 Put DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 15$ put into the hands of men of genius, I ean only recall you to your own natural feeling of. harmony, and obferve to you, that its emotions are not found in the la- boured, fantaftic, and furprizing compo- ntions that form the modern ftyle of mu- fic ; but you meet them in fome few pieces that are the growth of wild unvi- tiated tafte ; you difcover them in the fwelling founds that wrap us in imagi- nary grandeur j in thofe plaintive notes that make us in love with woe ; in the tones that utter the lover's fighs, and fluctuate the breaft with gentle pain ; in the noble ftrokes that coil up the courage and fury of the foul, or that lull it in confufed vifions of joy : in fhort, in thofe affecting {trains that find their way to the inward recefles of the heart ; Untwifling all the chains that tie The hidden foul of harmony. MILTON. Sculpture 156 C L I O : OR, A Sculpture and painting have their ftan- dard in nature ; and their principles dif- fer only according to the different ma- terials made ufe of in thefe arts. The variety of his colours, and the flat fur- face on which the painter is at liberty to raife his magic objects, give him a vaft fcope of ornament, variety, harmony of parts, and oppofition, to pleafe the mind, and divert it from too ftricl; an examina- tion. The fculptor, being fo much con-' fined, has nothing to move with but beauty, palHon, and force of attitude ; Sculpture therefore admits of no medi- ocrity ; its works are either intolerable, or very fine. In Greece, the finifhing of a fingle ftatue was often the work of ma- ny years. Sculpture and painting take their me- rit from the fame fpirit that poetry does ; a juftnefs, a grandeur, and force of exprelfion : and their principal objects DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 157 are the fublime, the beautiful, and the pafHonate. Painting, on account of its great latitude, approaches alfo very near to the variety of poetry ; in general their principles vary only according to the different materials of each. Poetry is capable of taking a feries of fucceffive facts, which comprehend a whole action from the beginning. It puts the paflions in motion gradually, and winds them up by fuccefiive efforts, that all conduce to the intended effect ; the mind could never be agitated fo vio- lently, if the ftorm had not come on by degrees : befides, language by its capa- city of reprefenting thoughts, of forming) the communication of mind with mind, and defcribing emotions, takes in feveral great, awful, and paflionate ideas that colours cannot reprefent j but the painter is confined to objects of vifion, and to one point or inftant of time : he cannot 158 C L I O : o R, A bring into view any events which did not, or at leaft might not happen, at one and the fame inftant. The chief art of the hiftory painter, is to hit upon a point of time, that unites the whole fucceflive aftion in one view, and ftrikes out the emotion you are defirous of raifing. Some painters have had the power of preferving the traces of a receding paflion, or the mixed difturbed emotions of the mind, without impairing the principal paflion. The Medea of Timomachus was a miracle of this kind j her wild love, her rage, and her maternal pity, were all poured forth to the eye, in one portrait. From this mixture of paffions, which is in na- ture, the murdrefs appeared dreadfully affecting. It is very necefTary for the union of defign in painting, that one principal figure appear eminently in view, and that all the reft be fubordinate to it j that is, the DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 159 the paflion or attention of that principal objedt fhould give a caft to the whole piece : for inftance, if it be a wreftler, or a courfer in the race, the whole fcene fhould not only be a&ive, but the atten- tions and paflions of the reft of the figures fhould all be directed bythatobjea: if it be a fifherman over the ftream, the whole fcene muft be filent, and meditative ; if ruins, a bridge, or waterfall, even the liv- ing perfons muft be fubordinate, and the traveller fhould gaze or look back with wonder. This ftrict union and concord is rather more neceflary in painting than in poetry : the reafon is, painting is almoft palpably a deception, and requires the ut- moft fkill in fele&ing a vicinity of probable ideas, to give it the air of reality and nature. For this reafon alfo nothing ftrange, wonderful, or fhocking to credulity, ought to be admitted in paintings that are defigned after real life. The 160 C L I O: on, A The principal art of the landfcape painter lies in felecting thofe objects of view that are beautiful or great, provid- ing there be a propriety and a juft neigh- bourhood preferved in the aflemblage, along with a carelefs diftribution that fo- licits your eye to the principal object where it refts ; in giving fuch a glance or confufed view of thofe that retire out of profpecl:, as to raife curiofity, and cre- ate in the imagination affecting ideas that do not appear ; and in beftowing as much life and action as poffible, without overcharging the piece. A landfcape is enlivened by putting the animated figures into action ; by flinging over it the chear- ful afpecl which the fun beftows, either by a proper difpofition of fhade, or by the appearances that beautify his rifmg or fet- ting ; and by a judicious profpe£t of wa- ter, which always conveys the idea of mo- tion : a few diflievelled clouds have the fame DISCOURSE ON TASTE. i6j -fame effeft, but with fomewhat lefs vi- vacity. The excellence of portrait-painting and fculpture fpring from the fame prin- ciples that affect us in life ; they are not the perfons who perform at a co- medy or tragedy we go to fee with fo much pleafure, but the paffions and emotions they difplay : in like-manner,^ the value of ftatues and pictures arife in proportion to the ftrength and clear- nefs of the expreffion of the paffions ; and to the peculiar and diftinguifhing air of character. Great painters almoft always chufe a fine face to exhibit the paffions in. If you recollect what I faid on beauty, you will eafily conceive the reafon why the agreeable paffions are mod lively in a beautiful face j beauty is the natural vehicle of the agreeable paffions. For the fame reafon the tempeftucus paf- fions appear ftrongeft in a fine face ; it fuffers the moft violent derangement M ty 162 C L I O : o RJ A by them. To which we may add, upon the fame principle, that dignity or courage cannot be mixed in a very ill favoured countenance j and that the painter, after exerting his whole (kill, finds in their ftead pride and terror. Thefe obfer- vations, which have been often made, 1 .ferve to illuftrate our thoughts on beauty. Befides the ftricT: propriety of nature, fculpture and figure-painting is a kind of defcription, which, like poetry, is under the direction of ge- nius ; that, while it preferves nature, fometimes, in a fine flight of fancy, throws an ideal fplendor over the figures that never exifted in real life. Such is the fublime and celeftial character that breathes over the Apollo Belvedere, and the inexpreffible beauties that dwell upon the Venus of Medici, and feem to fhed an illumination around her. This fuperior beauty muft be varied with pro- priety, as well as the paffions j the ele- gance of Juno muft be decent, lofty, and elated ; DISCOURSE ONTASTE. 163 elated; of Minerva, mafculine, confident, and chafte ; and of Venus, winning, foft, and confcious of pleafing. Thefe fifter arts, painting and ftatuary, as well as po- etry, put it out of all doubt, that the imagination carries the ideas of the beau- tiful and the fublime far beyond vifible nature ; fince no mortal ever poflefled the blaze of divine charms that furrounds the Apollo Belvedere, or the Venus of Me- dici, I have juft mentioned. A variety and flufli of colouring is generally the refuge of painters, who are not able to animate their defigns. We may- call a luftre of colouring, the rant and fuftain of painting, under which are hid the want of ftrength and nature. None but a painter of real genius can be fevere and modeft in his colouring, and pleafe at the fame time. It muft be obferved, that the glow and variety of colours, give a M 2 pleafure 1 64 CLIO: OR, A pleafure of a very different kind from th* object of painting. When foreign or- naments, gilding, and carving come to be confidered as neceflary to the beauty of pictures, they are a plain diagnoflic of a decay in tafte and power. A free and eafy proportion united with fimplicity, feem to conftitute the ele- gance of form in building. A fubordi- nation of parts to one evident defign forms fimplicity -y when the members thus evidently related are great, the union is always very great. In the proportions of a noble edifice, you fee the image of a creating mind refult from the whole. The evident uniformity of the rotunda, and its unparalleled fimplicity, are probably the fources of its fuperior beauty. When we look up at the vaulted roof, that feems to reft upon our horizon, we are ?ftonimed at the magnificence, more than git the vifible extent. . When DISCOURSE ON TASTE. ifc$ When I am taking a review of the" obje&s of beauty and grandeur, can I pafs by unnoticed the fource of colours and vifible beauty ? When the light is withdrawn, all nature retires from view, vifible bodies are annihilated, and the foul mourns the univerfal abfence in fo- litude j when it returns, it brings along with it the creation, and reftores joy as well as beauty. If I fhould diftinguifh the perceptions of the fenfes from each other, according to the flrength of the traces left on the ima- gination, I fhould call thofe of hearing, feeling, fmelling, and tafting, notions, which imprefs the memory, but weakly j while thofe of colours I fhould call ideas, to denote their flrength and peculiar clearnefs upon the imagination. This diftin£Hon deferves particular notice. The Author of nature has drawn an impene- trable veil over the fixed material world M 3 that i66 C L I O : o R, A that furrounds us : folid matter refufes our acquaintance, and will be known to us only by refitting the touch ; but how obfcure are the informations of feeling ! light comes like an intimate acquaintance to relieve us ; it introduces all nature to us, the fields, the trees, the flowers, the cryftal ftreams, and azure fky. But all this beauteous diverfity is no more than an agreeable enchantment formed by the light that fpreads itfelf to view ; the fixed parts of nature are eternally entombed be- neath the light, and we fee nothing in fact but a creation of colours. School- men, with their ufual arrogance, will tell you their ideas are tranfcripts of na- ture, and aflure you that the veracity of God requires they fhould be fo, becaufe we cannot well avoid thinking fo ; but nothing is an object of vifion but light, the picture we fee is not annexed to the earth, but comes with angelic celerity to meet our eyes. That which is called body DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 167 body or fubftance, that reflects the various colours of the light, and lies hid beneath the appearance, is wrapt in impenetrable obfcurity j it is fatally fhut out from our eyes and imagination, and only caufes in us the ideas of feeling, tafting, or fmeliing, which yet are not refemblances of any part of matter. I do not know do if I ap- pear too ftrong when I call colours the expreffion of the Divinity. Light ftrikes us with fuch vivacity and force, that we can hardly call it inanimate or unintelligent. Shall we admit uniformity into our lift of beauty, or firft examine its real merits ? When we look into the works of nature, we cannot avoid obferving that uniformity is but the beauty of minute objects. The oppofite fides of a leaf di- vided in the middle, and the leaves of the fame fpecies of vegetables, retain a ftriking uniformity ; but the branch, the tree, and foreft defert this ftmilarity, and take M 4 a noble 168 C L I O: OR, A 2 noble irregularity with vaft advantage. Cut a tree into a regular form, and you change its lofty port for a minute pret- tinefs. What forms the beauty of country fcenes, but the want of unifor- mity ? No two hills, vales, rivers, or profpcdts, are alike j and you are charm- ed by the variety. Let us now fuppofe a country made up of the moft beautiful hills and defcents imaginable, but every hill and every vale alike, and at an equal diftancej they foon tire you, and you find the delight vanilhes with the no- velty. There are, I own, certain aflemblages that form a powerful beauty by their union, of which a fine face is inconteft- ible evidence. But the charm does not feem by any means to refide in the uni- formity, which in the human countenance is not very exa£t. The human counte- nance may be planned out much more regu- DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 169 regularly, but I fancy without adding to the beauty, for which we muft faek another fource. In truth, the fineft eye in the world without meaning, and the fineft mouth without a fmile, are infinid. An agreeable countenance includes in the idea thereof an agreeable and gentle dif- pofiticn. How the countenance, and an arrangement of colours and feature's, can. exprefs the idea of an unfeen mind, we know not ; but fo the facl: is, and to this fine intelligent picture, whether it be falfe or true, certain I am, that the beauty of the human countenance is ow- ing, more than to uniformity. Shall we then fay, that the grestcft uniformity, along with the greafcft variety, fonrs beauty ? But this is a repetition of words without diftincl ideas, and explicates a well-known effect, by an obfcure caufe. Uniformity, as far as it extends, excludes variety ; and variety, fo far as it reaches, excludes uniformity. Variety is by far 170 CLIO: OR, A more pleafing than uniformity, but it does not conftitute beauty; for it is im- poffible that can be called beauty, which, when well known, ceafes to pleafe : whereas a fine piece of mufic fliall charm after being heard a hundred times j and a lovely countenance makes a ftronger impreffion on the mind by being often feen, becaufe there, beauty is real. I think we may, upon the whole, con- clude, that if uniformity be a beauty, it is but the beauty of minute objects ; and that it pleafes only by the vifible defign, and the evident footiteps of intelligence it difcovers. I muft fay fomething of the evanefcent charms of novelty. When our curiofity is excited at the opening of new fcenes, our ideas are affecting and beyond life, and we fee objects in a brighter hue than they after appear in. For when curio- fity is fated, the objecls grow dull, and our DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 171 our ideas fall to their diminutive natural Ijze. What I have faid may account for the raptured profpect of our youth we fee backward ; novelty always recommends, becaufe expectations of the unknown are ever high ; and in youth we have an eternal novelty : unexperienced credulous youth gilds our young ideas, and ever meets a frefh luftre that is not yet allayed by doubts. In age, experience corrects our hopes, and the imagination cools ; for this reafon, wifdom and high pleafure do not refide together, I have obferved through this difcourfe, that the delight we receive from the vifible objects of nature, or from the fine arts, may be divided into the conceptions of the fublime, and conceptions of the beautiful. Of the origin of the fublime I fpoke hypothetically, and with diffidence; all we certainly know on this head is, that 172 C L I O : OR, A F that the fenfations of the fuhlime we re- ceive from external obje&s, are attended v.-ith obfcure ideas of power and immen- fity j the origin of our fenfations of beau- ty, are ftill more unintelligible : however, I think there is fome foundation for claf- fmg the obje&s of beauty under different heads, by a correfpondence or fimilarity, that maybe obferved between feveral par- ii ticulars. A fall and confiftent evidence of de» fign, efpecial'y if the defign be attended v/ith an important effe£l, gives the idea of beauty : thus a fhip under fail, a grey- hound, a well-fhaped horfe, are beauti- ful, becaufe they difplay with eafe a great defign. Birds and beafts of prey, com- pleatly armed for deftruilion, are for the fame reafon beautiful, although objects of terror. Where DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 173 . Where different defigns at a fingle view, appear to concur to one effec~r, the beauty accumulates j as in the Grecian architecture : where different defigns, leading to different effeds, unite in the fame whole, they caufe confufion,- and diminifh the idea of beauty, as in ths Gothic buildings. Upon the fame prin- ciple, confufion and diforder are ugly or frightful ; the figures ma<'e by fpilled liquors are always ugly. Regular figures are handfome j and the circular, the moft regular, is the moft beautiful. This re- gulation holds only where the fublime does not enter ; for in that cafe the irre- gularity and careleffbefs adds to the ideas of power, and raifes in proportion our admiration. The confufion in which we fee the ftars fcattered over the heavens, and the rude arrangement of mountains, add to their grandeur. A mixture of the fublime aids ex- ceedingly the idea of beauty, and height- x ens ,74 C L I O: OR, A ens the horrors of diforder and uglinefs. Perfonal beauty is vaftly raifed by a noble air ; on the contrary, the d involution and ruins of a large city, diftrefles the mind proportionally : but while we mourn over great ruins, at the deftru&ion of our fpecies, we are alfo foothed by the ge- nerous commiferation we fed in our own breads, and therefore ruins give us the fame kind of grateful melancholly we feel at a tragedy. Of all the obje&s of dif- cord and confufion, no other is fo (hock- ing as the human foul in madnefs. When we fee the principle of thought and beauty difordered, the horror is too high, like that of a maflacre committed before our eyes, to fuffer the mind to make any re- flex aft on the god-like traces of pity that diftinguifh our fpecies ; and we feel nofenfations but thofe of difmay and terror. Regular motion and life fhewn in inani- mate objects, give us alfo the fecret plea- fure DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 175 fure we call beauty. Thus waves fpent, and fucceffively breaking upon the fhore, and waving fields of corn or grafs in con- tinued motion, are ever beautiful. The beauty of colours may perhaps be arrang- ed under this head : colours, like notes of mufic, affect the paflions ; red incites anger ; black to melancholy ; white brings a gentle joy to the mind ; the fofter co- lours refrefh or relax it. The mixtures and gradations of colours have an effect correfpondent to the tranfitions and com- binations of founds ; but the ftrokes are too tranfient and feeble to become the objects of expreffion. Beauty alfo refults from every difpofi- tion of nature that plainly difcovers her fa- vour and indulgence to us. Thus the fpring feafon, when the weather becomes mild, the verdant fields, trees loaded with fruit or covered with (hade, clear fprings, but particularly the human face, where the gentle 176 C L I O: OR, A gentle paffions are delineated, is beyond expreflion beautiful. On the fame prin- ciple, inclement wintry (kies, trees ftrip- ped of their verdure, defert barren lands, and above all death, is frightful and fhock- ing. I muft, however, obferve, that I do not by any means fuppofe, that the fentiment of beauty arifes from a reflex confiderate ac"l of the mind, upon the ob- fervation of the defigns of nature or of art ; the fentiment of beauty is inftanT taneous, and depends on no prior reflec- tions. All I mean is, that defign and beauty are in an arbitrary manner united together j fo that where we fee the one, whether we reflect on it or no, we per- ceive the other. I muft further add, that there may be other divifions of beauty eafily difcoverable, which I have not taken notice of. s The general fenfe of beauty, as well as of grandeur, feems peculiar to man in the DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 177 the creation. ^ The herd in common with him enjoy the gentle breath of fpring j they lye down to repofe on the flowery bank, and hear the peaceful hum- ming of the bee ; they enjoy the green fields and paftures : but we have reafon to think, that it is man only who fees the image of beauty over the happy profpecl, and rejoices at it j that it is hid from the brute creation, and depends not upon fenfe, but on the intelligent mind. We have juft taken a tranfient view of the principal departments of tafte ; let us now, madam, make a few general re- flections upon our fubjeft. The human genius, with thebeft aflift- ance, and the fined examples, breaks forth but flowly ; and the greateft men have but gradually acquired a juft tafte, and chafte fimple conceptions of beauty. At an immature age, the fenfe of beauty N is 178 C L I O: OR, A is weak and confufed, and requires an cxcefs 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 j but as the hu- man genius ftrengthens and grows to maturity, if it be aflifted by a happy edu- cation, the fenfe of univerfal beauty awakes ; it begins to be difgufted with the falfe and mifhapen 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 hu- man mind, may be fixed at three re- markable 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 tafte, and the laft genius. A fenfe DISCOURSE ONTASTE. 179 A fenfe of the beautiful and of the great is univerfal, which appears from the uniformity thereof in the moft diflant ages and nations. What was engaging and fublime in antient Greece and Rome, are fo at this day : and, as I obferved before, there is not the leaft neceffity of improvement or fcience, to difcover the charms of a graceful or noble deportment. Here is a fine, but an ineffectual light in the bread of man. After nightfall we have admired the planet Venus, the beau- ty 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 fhe fhone indiftinguim- ed beauty, without giving fufficient light to direct our fteps, or (hew us the ob- jects around us. Thus in unimproved nature, the light of the mind is bright and ufelefs. In utter barbarity, our profpect of it is ftill lefs fixed j it ap- N 2 pears, i8o CLIO: OR, A pears, and then again fcems wholly to vanifh in the favage breaftj like the fame planet Venus, when fhe has but juft raifed her orient beams to mariners above the waves, and is now defcried, and now loft, through the fwelling billows. The next ftep is tafte, the fubjeft of our enquiry, which confifts in a diftinft, unconfufed knowledge of the great and beautiful. Although you fee not many poflefled 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 diftinguifli the common people of Rome and of all the cities of Greece, while the level of mankind was preferved in thofe cities ; while the Plebeians had a (hare in the government, and an utter reparation was DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 181 was not made between them and the nobles, by wealth and luxury. But when once the common people are rent afunder wholly from the great and opu- lent, and made fubfervient to the luxury of the latter ; then the tafte of nature in- fallibly takes her flight from both parties. The poor by a fordid habit, and an at- tention wholly confined to mean views, and the rich by an attention to the change- able modes of fancy, and a vitiated pre- ference for the rich and coftly, lofe view of fimple beauty and grandeur. It may feem a paradox, and yet I am firmly per- fuaded, 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 poflefled but by few, even in the brighteft ages. Men of fuperior genius, while they fee the N3 reft 182 C L I O : OR, A reft of mankind painfully ftruggling to comprehend obvious truths, glance them- felves through the moft remote confe- quences, like lightning through a path that cannot be traced. They fee the beauties of nature with life and warmth, and paint them forcibly without effort, as the morning fun does the fcenes he T rifes upon ; and in feveral inftances, com- municate to objects a morning frefhnefs and unaccountable luftre, that is not feen in the creation of nature. The poet, the ftatuary, 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 darknefs to which we know no beginning ; and the long bar- rennefs of thofe countries after in great jj* ( men, prove that genius owes much of its luftre to a perfonal conteft of glory, and DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 183 and the ftrong rivalftiip 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 breafts of poets, painters, and ftatuaries, men of tafte ftill remained, who diftinguifhed 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 re- turn. 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 de- partment of the liberal arts, in the ages of genius, and the fimplicity that always N 4 attends 1 84 C L I O: OR, A -s attends beauty j we muft be led to think, that although few perhaps can reach to the fupreme beauty of imagination dif- played by the firft-rate poets, orators, and philofophers j yet moft men are ca- pable of juft thinking and agreeable writing. Nature lies very near our re- flections, and will appear, if we be not mifled and prejudiced before the fenfe of beauty grows to maturity. The popu- lace of Athens and Rome prove flrongly, that uncommon parts or great learning are , not neceflary to make men think juftly. We know not the bounds of tafle, be- caufe we are unacquainted with the ex- tent and boundaries of the human genius. The mind in ignorance is like a fleeping giant j it has immenfe capacities, without the power of ufmg them. By liftening to the leflbns of Socrates, men grew heroes, philofophers, and legiflators ; for he, of all mankind, feemed to have difcovered the DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 185 thefhort and lightfome path to the facul- ties of the mind. To give you an in- ftance of the human capacity, that comes more immediately within your notice, what graces, what fentiments have been tranfplanted into the motion of a minuet, which a favage has no conception of ! 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 imagina- tion, whofe objects are in fcenes and in worlds we are ftrangers to. Children who die young, have no conception of the fen- timent of perfonal beauty. Are we cer- tain that we are not yet children in re- fpecl: to feveral fpecies of beauties ? We are ignorant whether there be not paffions 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, 186 CLIO: OR, A reality, we know not but the tafte and ca- pacity of beauty and grandeur in the foul, may extend as far beyond all we actually perceive, as this whole world ex- ceeds the fphere of a cockle or an oyfter. Let us now confider by what means tafte is ufually depraved and loft in a nation, that is neither conquered by bar- barians nor has loft the improvements in agriculture, hufbandry, and defence, that allow men leifure for reflection and em- belifliment. I obferved before, that this natural light is not fo clear in the great- eft men, but it may lie opprefled by bar- barity. When people of mean parts, and of pride without genius, get into ele- vated ftations, they want a tafte for fimple grandeur, and miftake for it what is uncommonly glaring and extraordina- ry ; whence proceeds falfe wit of every kind, a gaudy richnefs in drefs, an op- preflive load of ornament in building, and a grandeur DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 187 grandeur overftrained and puerile univer- fally. I muft obferve, that people of bad tafte and little genius almoft always lay a great ftrefs on trivial matters, and are oftentatious and exact in fingularities, or in a decorum in trifles. When people of mean parts appear in high ftations, and at the head of the fafhionable world, they cannot fail to introduce a falfe embroid- ered habit of mind : people of nearly the fame genius who make up the croud, will admire and follow them ; and at length folitary tafte, adorned only by noble fimplicity, will be loft in the ge- neral example, Alfowhen a nation is much corrupted; when avarice and a love of gain have feized upon the hearts of men ; when the nobles ignominioufly bend their necks to corruption and bribery, or enter into the bafe myfteries of gaming ; then decency, elevated principles, and greatnefs of foul expire . i88 C L I O : OR, A expire ; and all that remains is a comedy or puppet-fhew of elegance, in which the dancing-mafter and peer are upon a level, and the mind is underftood to have no part in the drama of politenefs, or elfe to act under a mean difguife of virtues which it is not poffeffed of. Upon putting together the whole of our reflections, you fee two different natures laying claim to the human race, and drag- ging it different ways. You fee a necef- fity that arifes from our fituation andcir- cumftances, bending us down into un- worthy mifery and fordid bafenefs ; and you fee, when we can efcape from the infulting tyranny of our fate, and acquire eafe and freedom, a generous nature that lay ftupified and oppreffed, begin to awake and charm us with profpects of beauty and glory. This awaking genius gazes in rapture at the beauteous and ele- vating fcenes of nature. The beauties of nature are familiar, and charm it like a mother's DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 189 mother's bofom ; and the objects which have the plain marks of immenfe power and grandeur, raife in it a dill, an in- quifitive, and trembling delight : but genius often throws over the objects of its con- ceptions colours finer than thofe of na- ture, and opens a Paradife that exifts no where but in its own creations. The bright and peaceful fcenes of Arcadia, and the lovely defcriptions of paftoral poetry, never exifted on earth, no more than Pope's fhepherds or the river gods of Windfor foreft : it is all but a charm- ing illufion, which the mind firft paints with celeftial colours, and then languiflies for. Knight-errantry is another kind of delufion, which though it be fictitious in fact, yet is true in fentiment. I be- lieve there are few people who in their youth, before they be corrupted by the commerce of the world, are not knight- errants and princefles in their hearts. The foul, in a beauteous ecftacy, com- municates igo C L I O: OR, A municates a flame to words which they had not j and poetry, by its quick tran- fitions, bold figures, lively images, and the variety of efforts to paint the latent rapture, bears witnefs, that the confufed ideas of the mind are ftill infinitely fu- perior, and beyond the reach of all de- fcription. 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 hu- manity, and leads the foul through the enchanting meanders of mufic in a wak- ing vifion, through which it cannot break to difcover the near objects that charm it. How fhall we venture to trace the ob- ject of this furprifing 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 DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 191 of mufic charm us by gently agitating and fwelling the paffions, and fetting fome paffions afloat, 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 lovelinefs that never ex- ifted in thofe objeas. Where fhall the foul find this amazing beauty, whofe very fliadow, glimmering upon the ima- gination, opens unfpeakable raptures in it, and diftracls it with languishing pleafure ? What are thofe ftranger fenti- ments that lie in wait in the foul, until mu- fic calls them forth ? What is the obfcure but unavoidable value or merit of virtue ? or who is the law-maker in the mind who ' gives it a worth and dignity beyond all eftimation, and puniflies the breach of it 192 C L I O: OR, A it with confcious terror and defpair ? What is it in objects of immeafura- ble power and grandeur, that we look for with ftill amazement and awful de- light ? But I find, madam, we have been infenfibly led into fubje&s too ab- ftrufe and fevere ; I muft not put the graces with whom we have been conyerf- ing to flight, and draw the ferious air of meditation over that countenance where the fmiles naturally dwell. I have, in confequence of your permif- fion, put together fuch thoughts as occur- red 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 obfervation that I may make. Before I finifh, I muft in j uftice make my acknow- ledgements of the afliftance I received. I took notice, at the beginning, that Rol- lin's Obfervations on Tafte gave occafion to this difcourfe. Sir Harry Beaumont's I polifhed DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 193 polifhed dialogue on beauty, called Cri- to, was of fervice to me j and I have availed myfelf 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 mould be very unjuft, 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, at leaft in honefty, to difclaim every merit but that of copying from a bright original. A DIS. ( 194 ) A DISCOURSE on TASTE. Continued in a DIALOGUE between * young Lady and the Dean of .. Amelia. T AM pleafed with the famili- •*• arity of your friend's Clio, and I aaa pleafed at the fubjecl:. I always took learning to be harm and unfociable, but nothing can be more agreeable- than the fine arts. Dear mufic ! painting ! fta- tuary ! architecture ! elegance ! I am in love with them all. Why is our tafte for them fo different from our tafte for the other parts of learning ? Dean. Modern philofophers, madam, leave the human mind to the poets, as a thing of too much levity to deferve at- tention, and pay their chief regards to fober folid matter, or the fubftance of which DISCOURSE ONTASTE. 195 which bodies are formed. They will teach you its laws, and how to compute, with fcrupulous exa&nefs, the forces of bodies in motion. They nicely weigh the arguments pro and con about the di- vifibility of matter, and then leave them in the balances. They meafure and com. pare figures, which is of vaft ufe in the concerns of life : but they have greater effects in view j no lefs than the conftruc- tion of worlds, and the furnifliing them afterwards. They ingenioufly attribute feveral powers to the form, to the motion, and fize of the invifible particles of bodies, which were never known to refide in vifible form, motion, or fize. For in- ftance, they tell you that the fame fub- ftance or matter, being in the form of minute fpheres or globes, conftitutes wa- ter; but being exhibited in the form of fquares, pyramids, and other figures, of proper fizes, it makes trees, rocks, animals, and the other furniture of this O 2 world. 196 CLIO: OR, A world. Having taken a licence of beftow- ing a metamorphofing or productive pow- er on unknown forms and fizes, where they are confident they cannot be detect- ed, they fit you out a world with its cargo, with as little difficulty as they would a fhip for the Eaft Indies ; and are ready to furnifh you out as many more as there is occafion for, throughout the ex- panfe of the heavens. It is even a cafe of doubt, whether matter may not think. But as the graveft philofophers have mo>- deftly acknowledged, that thought muft in that cafe be im-prefled by the arbitrary volition of the deity on matter, we (hall never be able to determine, whether in a world conftituted fomewhat differently from this, the trees are not animated, and the flowers are not little gay coquets. A. I fhould like much to be ac- quainted with your little gaudy coquets, •if they were not fubjedt to die fo foon on DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 197 my hands. As for the reft of what you have been faying, I underftand little of it. Your philofophers have already tired me ; let us leave them at work in their matter, I would not for the world difturb them, for I fee they are bufy about affair* of great confequence. What I want to know is, why the fine arts are fo familiar and pleafing. D. You fee that the kind of learn- ing I have been fpeaking of, bears little relation to man : therefore providenti- ally it has few natural charms for him. The truth is, the world is a fcene thro' which his fate obliges him to haften ; its matter and creation are of little confer quence to him, otherwife than affording him a paflage between birth and death j in a few years they will be of no manner of concern to him. In proportion to this worthleflhefs, provident nature has wrap- ped them in obfcurity. When he em- O 3 ploys 198 C L I O : o R, A ploys his thoughts about matter, it re- tires from him fullenly into darknefs, and his philofophy becomes trifling, cold, and barren : but when you look towards the fine arts, you fee that they all bear a manifeft relation to the foul or fpirit, that forms ourfelves throughout our whole exiftence. Hiftory, tragedy, comedy, and every fpecies of poetry, are either reprefen- tations of the human paflions, or of the ideas that move them. Painting, fculp- ture, the various beauties of vifion, mu- fic, and that noble part of philofophy, which treats of human nature, all take their value from their relation to the foul. A. If I underftand you right, you are of opinion, that it is fome profpect exhibited of the mind itfelf, or of the paf- fions, that make hiftory, tragedy, comedy, and the other fpecies of poetry delight- ful 3 and that the ftudies that have not the DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 199 the mind immediately in view, are cold and taftelefs. D. You conceive my meaning very exa&ly. Euclid and Sir Ifaac Newton were men of prodigious knowledge and invention ; every lover of fcience ftudies them carefully, and is obliged to admire the clearnefs and extent of genius they difplayed j but their works are cold and inanimate ; to read them requires patience, and to comprehend them uncommon la- bour, and painful perfeverance . they con- vince our reafon, but touch not the heart. If you like to feaft on the ideas that na- turally charm us, look at the fimple con- ceptions of the human mind in Shake- fpeare, or the fublirrie of Milton. It is in vain to plead in behalf of Euclid and Sir Ifaac Newton, that improvements beyond meafure ufeful in the concerns of life, depend on their difcoveries. Tafte is not convinced by argument, nor bribed 04 by 200 C L I O : o R, A by ufe or conveniency. It pafles by the inventors of ufeful arts with negligence, and admires with a lover's warmth the poet, the ftatuary, and painter, and their idle arts. Let me add, that the fcholars of Socrates, (who much confined their enquiries to the human mind) feemed to have acquired powers fuperior to the reft of mankind, and to difplay a pomp of genius that never appeared before or fince j which is a ftrong teltimony of the rich- nefs of this vein of fcience, and of the kindnefs of the author of our prepofief- fions, who has invited us by pleafure and advantage to turn our thoughts to the intellectual part of man. A» I am glad Socrates, whom you ad- mire fomuch, was of mytafte; and Ifliall have a great efteem for him from hence- forward. You have given me a new light into the connection obfervable be- tween the fine arts. They are all united by DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 261 by the human mind, to which they are mutually related. But how came it to pafs that the fine arts lay dead fo long in barbarity ? D. My friend told you in Clio — when the lifeofmanwasmortened,andhis wants encreafed by the barrennefs of the earth ; when half his life was caft into helplefs, youth, or declining age ; and cold, hun- ger, and wild beads perfecuted 'him, he was inevitably obliged to turn all his at- tention to his neceflities, and to neglect all thoughts of arts and elegance, con- fequently to fall into barbarifm. A. That I comprehend very clearly ; but after the human ftate was improved, and men had leifure to think, when the arts came to be known, admired, and cultivated, how came their reign to be fo ftiort ? What was the reafon that they for- fook nations that loved them, and were cap- 202 C t I Or OR, A captivated with their charms ; and that although courted, they obftinately re- fufed to return ? /). There is fomething equally un- accountable in their firft vifit to the world. In Greece, and Greece only, the fine arts fprung up, unlooked for, and unknown, to a (late of perfection", and to a ftate of perfection beyond all emulation. Tragedy, comedy, hiftory, philofophy, fculpture, painting, and mufic, like the Graces, appeared hand in hand. And in the Grecian writers, you frequently difcover manifeft traces of the grand genius that infpired them. But the wonder of their appearance was not greater, than that of their recefs. The great men in thofe arts in Greece, lay within fo narrow a compafs, that they might nearly be acquainted with each other. But v/hen that noble age pafled by, the arts began to languifli, and never 6 after DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 203 after recovered their luflre. Exactly the fame revolution happened in Rome : the genius of tafle feemed to vifit the world once more, and to take her refi- dence in the capital of the world. She ftaid about eighty years : ihe waited up- on the obfequies of the commonwealth j but after, fhe could not be detained by any human means or power, although the emperors of the world were many of them the profefTed patrons of the fcien- ces. In this laft age there is a light re- flected from the two bright asras I have mentioned, which now fhines upon the weftern world. I call it a reflected light, becaufe the powers of the Ibul do not revive in concert as formerly, and dif- play an uniform force of genius, but the fine arts appear amongft us exactly in proportion to the ftandards we have left from the antients. Mufic being totally loft, we have but faint, difunited, and accidental traces of the mighty powers of it. zo4 C L I O : OR, A it. Painting* elegance, and oratory, are in a ftate of mediocrity, if not below it. But poetry, which is fo ftrong and fuf- ceptible in the human breaft, and fculp- ture, in both of which we have fo many fine models from the antients, are arrived at a higher degree of perfection ; al- though in both, we fee the antients at a vaft diftance before us, and come near to perfedtion only in proportion as we imi- tate well, and catch fomewhat of their original fpirit. A. I thought we excelled all ages in every branch of knowledge, and in all arts. I am impatient to know the rea- fon of our inferiority. I want to know feveral things together for fear I fhould forget them. What was the reafon of the rife of the fine arts in Greece and Rome ? and why did they go away fo ab- ruptly without any refpecl or complai- fance for kings and emperors ? D. So DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 205 D. So many great men have failed in the difcoveries you require, that all a per- fon who attempts them can reafonably hope for, is to guefs well. The method I fhall purfue, in order to fatisfy you, is to take a clofe view of the circumftances in which the fublime arts were produced ; and from them to deduce the effects with as much probability as they will bear : your knowledge of Greek and Roman hiftory will make what I have to fay eafy to you. You may obferve, that the fine arts appeared in perfection only in free ftates ; and that when freedom fell, the arts alfo languifhad and expired with it, in fpite of all endeavours to the con- trary, and left nothing behind, but a cold imitation of the original creating genius that infpired artifts. Yet it is neceflary to obferve, that if the birth of arts depended on liberty alone, they would grow up pretty fimilarly in all democra- cies. The event fhews, that there are other 206 C L I O: OR, A other requifites necefTary, which con- curred in Greece, but no where elfe, in the fame aufpicious degree. The fine arts only arrived to perfec- tion in free countries, becaufe liberty is the very foul, and infpiring idea of the arts. Let us unfold this truth gradually, that we may conceive it well. I ob- ferved before, that thofe arts depend on the mind of man for their value ; and I alfo hinted often, that there is a certain fublimity of genius common to them all. Here then are two known points ! of union. Freedom beftows on man an uncommon elevation and dignity of foul, whofe fymptoms are very ftriking. The members of free ftates have always looked upon themfelves as a fpecies of men far above the fubjects of monarchies. This haughty idea is inculcated by habit ; it is fucked in with their milk ; it is the bur- 4en of the wondrous talss told to their litfening DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 207 liftening youth ; it is nurfed by exam- ple and precept, until it becomes an en- thufiafm that poflefles the whole imagi- nation. Thofe who are acquainted with the Roman and Grecian orators, know that they fpoke in defence of liberty with a facred tranfport and warmth that ap- proached to rapture; and their patriots, infpired by the fame fpirit, performed ac- tions that aftonifhed nations, and feemed above human power. This fublime idea, that flamed and lightned in the oration, and gave fupernatural force to the pa- triot, was undoubtedly the fame that beamed fo brightly on the imagination of the ftatuary and painter, and ftruck the lyre with fuch divine rage : but when liberty fell, this glorious dignity of foul was no more, and the arts fell to a fervile imitation, when the celeftial idea that gave them power expired. But however haughty the members of demo- cracies may be, this divine fpirit being equally 208 C L I O: OR, A equally opprefled in all men, by the avo- cation of their ftate, and their neceffi- ties, it will remain liftlefs and inani- mated even in a free ftate, until feveral fortunate circumftances concur to warm it into life and operation. A. Dear fir, let us come to Greece as faft as we can, and fee the circum- ftances that concurred there fo happily to produce the fine arts. D. I told you, madam, I fpeak only in doubt -3 but no appearance of truth ought to be neglected in this curious enquiry. We are looking back to an age, when agriculture and the other arts of plenty and eafe were lately introduced into Greece : the acquifition of the necef- Jfaries of life allowed time of reflection ; and luxury, which even then was at a great height in Afia, had not yet found the way into Europe. In this ftate the fimple DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 209 /imple and natural always lie near men's thoughts. The Greeks had received the firft hints in painting and ftatuary from Egypt ; but thefe arts ferved in Egypt only to mark down important notes, and public regu- lations, by hieroglyphics, or vifible pic- tures, before the ufe of letters was difcover- ed ; and they were confidered as inventions of public utility, but not of genius. What were fymbols in Egypt, were looked upon in Greece as the figures of gods ; and this miftake produced new ideas in painters and ftatuaries, that muft prove favourable to their arts : they now thought it neceflary to diftinguifh their works by their beauty and grandeur. At the fame time mufic and poetry lay in a favage ftate, but in their favage Hate they were admired and cultivated. Greece at this early age was divided into a great number of petty ftates, of P different 2io C L I O : OR, A different origins, principles, cuftoms, and governments, that agreed in nothing but the common fentiments of nature, and fortunately in one language. It happened that they inftituted frequent public afiemblies, where the men of ge- nius, the idle, and opulent, who had lei- fure for reflexion, and the moft illuftrious in their refpe&ive ftates, met regularly, amongft other decifions, to judge of works of tafte, which at firft undoubtedly were rude and coarfe. Befide the appointed judges, curiofity collected a vaft number of others, whom you may call the vo- luntary difciples of tafte. In thefe noble afTemblies their prejudices were confined to each community and town ; and they had no common prejudice, but in favour I of what was really beautiful. The uni- verfal judgment was therefore always • right, and could be no other than the common univerfal tafte of nature : for you are never to forget, that although tafte DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 211 tafte be overwhelmed by prejudice, it is not loft. The Goths had their poetry and arch i teclure, in which the divine genius appeared bewildered, but ftill that appearance charmed them. It is alfo ne- ceffary to conceive, that although all mankind lay under prejudices, their pre- judices, like the teftimony of falfe wit- neffes, differed, while all agree in the fen- timents of nature. Under the aufpicious ceconomy I fpoke of, and judges fo happily calculated, in Greece genius ftripped off faft, though gradually, its beggar's weeds, and fhone forth in its native fplendor. Falfe ornament and prejudice were de- tected, true beauty of every kind fprung forth like original light, it was difcovered with vaft exultation, and fpread without pains like the national language. Their very populace thought and fpoke nobly. The Romans, about the time of the ruin of the commonwealth, were in a fitua- tion not very unlike this I have been P 2 fpeaking an CLIO: OR, A fpeaking of: they were formed of al! the known nations of the earth, and yet ,-- they all fpoke one language. A variety in the original prepofleflions, along with an univerfal communication, is the beft circumftance for wearing away preju- dices, and for arriving at juft concep- tions of nature and beauty. Befides, the "TRomans with vaft emulation, made the acquifitions of Greece their own, and caught the fpirit they admired. But it muft be confefied, that the Roman tafte had much of imitation, and inherited only a remnant of the creating genius of Greece. Amongft the happy circum- ftances peculiar to the native country of the mufes and the graces, I fhould have obferved, that an excellency in the arts always procured diftin&ion and honours in the ftate, which in free governments, where numbers enjoy a fhare of the fo~ vereign power, is a warmer incentive to emulation, than a monarch has to beftow. 2 Artifts DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 213 Artifts in Greece reflected honour on the dates they belonged to, and were almoft idolized by thofe ftates. In fuch a noble conteft of genuis, in which every ftep was calculated to unveil the fublime beauties of the mind, men im- mediately came to imitate nature. The pictures and images exprefled and moved, the paffions of mufic were difcovered, and oratory armed itfelf with the mighty powers of the foul. After the beautiful and affecting, appeared the fublime : the human fpirit was furprifed to hear the divine voice of poetry raifed fo high ; it was furprifed to fee its unutterable fentiments fixed upon marble, and a gran- deur difclofed in the different provinces of genius by far fuperior to the originals in nature. But it would be abfolutely impoiftble for the mind to take this lofty flight in the imitative arts, if their ideas of the human fpirit, which is the object P3 of 214 C L I O: OR, A of thefe arts, was not vaft and enthufi- aftic. The arts in fupreme beauty are the infpiration of a foul furrounded with grandeur, breathing virtue and liberty, whofe tone of voice is celeftial, and whofe attitudes exprefs a divine habit of mind. While this fpirit exifted in Greece and Rome, their patriots were demi gods ; the poet's idea produced tragic and epic heroes, who emulated their deities. The painter and fculptor ventured to bring gods to view in the human form, expreflive of the divine cha- racter ; and mufic was compofed, that called up the paflions with fovereign authority, and led the foul captive by a regulated order of founds. It is a lofs to me, that you are not acquainted with Demofthenes : the infpiring fpirit that raifed him and the other antient orators to fo high a degree of importance, is immediately difcovered to confift in this dignity and immenfe value put upon human virtue and freedom. As foon DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 215 foon as the liberties of Greece and Rome were deftroyed ; when the value of hu- man nature funk, and defpotic govern- ments brought guilt and fervitude together into view, then the divine enthufiafm and boldnefs that attended on liberty expired; and the arts, whofe real object was the haughty and fublime fpirit of man, fell together irretrievably. After which, ge- nius could only imitate the works of the antients, and produce a cold beauty, dcftitute of the original facred energy. J A, I have heard you with great atten- tion ; every thing you have faid gives me caufe to grieve for the lofs of the li- berties ofalmoftthe whole world. What beauty ! what grandeur ! what invention did they bring to mankind ? O ye ty-r rants of the earth, how have ye defaced human nature ! What a happinefs is it to be born in a country of liberty ! P 4 D. You 2i6 C L I O: OR, A D. You have got a view of the fair fide of human nature. If there were not fome mighty inconveniencies that attended liberty, fuch is the fondnefs of the world for it, that any man who durft affume the fovereignty over his fellow-creatures, would be torn in pieces by his own rela- tions and domeftics ; and every perfon on earth would prove a Brutus to him. The truth is, if the dignity and virtue affumed by the republican were real, the whole race of man would be free, and there would be little occafion for government : but natural dignity and virtue are only fine fpe&res, that haunt and delight the foul, like the poet's vifions. For, in fact, man's ftate, his circumftances, and vices, make fubje&ion neceflary to him, and oblige him to bear a yoke he hates. If indeed he were prefled by no appetites, and invaded by no evils, or had always at hand a fupply of enjoy- ments, he would be a very innocent crea- ture, he would form no defigns to difturb bis DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 217 his neighbour's repofe, and would re- quire but few laws to reftrain him : he would have no temptation to violate his intellectual tafte of virtue and digni- ty ; and the golden age, which in idea looks fo delightful, would appear in re- ality on the earth. But while man is a prey to evils, and to appetites, which may be allayed at his neighbour's coft, his natural inclinations, to which he is impelled by his wretchednefs, is to tref- pafs upon thofe who are pofleffed of what he wants j and if he be not able to pro- cure them by force, he does not ceafe to covet them, and attempt to acquire them by fraud. This is the fecondary natural ftate of man, that arifes from his exter- nal circumftances and wants, which make a ftate of fubje&ion and fociety necefTary, to reftrain him from perpetual warfare and rapine, in all communities where fome men are rich and others poor ; for it is neceflary to obferve, that amongft favages, where there is no permanent poflefiion. 2i8 C L I O: OR, A pofleflion, and little to be coveted, there the fetters of government are unneceflary. A. I did not fpeak againft fubje&ion, but againft tyranny and flavery. I fup- pofe it is not the liberty of wild beafts that republicans feek for, but a mode- rate government j and that they only avoid tyranny. The Roman and Grecian commonwealths, who carried the dignity of human nature fo high, were real fo~ cieties, and governed by laws j fo that there is no neceffity to be unreftrained, in order to be free. D. The condition of mankind in an im- proved and opulent ftate, requires reftraintj and bylaws of neceffity as ftrong as fate, they cannot live a day in fafety without it j their fears and danger therefore, not- withftanding their darling love of free- dom, extort obedience from them ; and at the moment they have attained that full liberty that leaves no more to. defire, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 219 defire, make the moft infulting degree of tyranny neceflary to fave them from civil war and mutual carnage. What I was fpeaking of, was the contention be- tween fubjection and that liberty which is the beloved object of the fons of freedom j and to conceive what this really is, let us take in the whole feries of conduct of paft republicks, in vindication of liberty ; and we (hall find that no people ever broke from monarchy, or the go- vernment of a few, and adopted the po- pular form, flopped at any ftep fhort of anarchy ; but regularly, and with a pre- cipitate inclination, proceeded to demo- lifti, ftep by ftep, every prerogative of the ruling powers, until they came to that level, which it is impofiible to en- joy in an opulent ftate. If the Romans, the Carthaginians, the Athenians, and every other popular ftate that ever exifted, ^proceeded alike, directly and reguarly, to untie every band of government, until they fell into diforder and anarchy, and made 220 CLIO: OR, A made a tyranny neceflary, to fave them from the miferies of endlcfs civil war ; it cannot be doubted, but the real ob- je& of their defires is that liberty, of which human nature is always enamoured, and ever incapable of pofiefiing. Men arc very often hurried on, by the violence of their pafiions, without feeing their ends, or fuffcring themfelves to take a view of the landing-place, to which they tend ; and reafon, that eternal volun- teer in the fervice of the paffions, only ferves to find pretences and excufes, to juftify the inclinations. The parliament who attacked king Charles I. never fuf- pe£ted that they were ruflaing into anar- chy : they felt the grievance of govern- ment ; by little and little they eafed themfelves of their burden j they grafped at power ; every advance they made to- wards free.'om only made the remainder of fubje&ion intolerable to them : but the DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 221 the minute they acquired the full potfef- fion of liberty, the tyranny of Cromwell became neceflary, to fave them from cut- ting each others throats. Montefquieu obferves, that factions and contention are efiential to free ftates. He faw plainly the fact, but was not quite fo well apprized of the caufe ; for nothing can be a clearer evidence, that the freedom men defire, cannot be recon- ciled with any permanancy to the human ftate, than that in all focieties who adopt the principles of liberty, there is a perpetual ferment and ftrife, until thofe principles be ejected out of the conftitution. The oftracifm of the Athenians, and the pro- fcriptions of the Romans, demonftrate the natural infirmity of their governments, and the want of a fufficient ruling power. Popular ftates are generally paft remedy, before the decay be fufpecledj as their final end 222 CLIO: OR, A end approaches, factions bring on a conti- nual fever, that tends to deftroy a frame that cannot be preferved j and then ano- ther form of government, which is always defpotic, fucceeds. Nothing is more ob- vious, than that the government of Rome was vitally deftroyed fome years before Crefar won the decifive battle of Phar- falia. It was not his ambition ruined the commonwealth, but the fall of the commonwealth, which that vigilant poli- tician faw inevitable, incited his ambition. The prerogatives of the ruling powers were in his time utterly exhaufted, yet were the Romans at no other age fo univerfally mad for liberty ; by the en- couragement of which fpirit, that great ftatefman brought the republic to its final ruin. There is a truth necefTary to be taken notice of, which Addifon in his Cato has concealed with great care : it is, that Cato was the tory and cavalier of DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 223 cf his time, who flood up for prerogative; and that Caefar, while he was planing the cleftru&ion of the republic, was the whig and patron of liberty, who took every op- portunity to extend the privileges of the people, in order to heighten the diforder, that was then too far gone. Pompey, who was before Casfar the patron of the people, took exa&ly the fame method, for the fame reafon ; and from the event, we may infer, that there are no limits to ft" defire of freedom ftiort of the definition of government ; and that there is no ilage of government, in which men are more impatient for new degrees of liber- ty, than when the commonwealth is upon the point of diflblution, for want of fuf- ficient authority. A. This is really inhuman, to give me fuch a fine idea of liberty, and then to dam it to the ground. But fince the liberty men really feek and defire is not at- 224 C L I O : o R, A attainable, how comes it to pafs that the world has fuch an eager paflion for it ? D. Pleafe to recollect what I told you a while ago, that fubjection is the neceflary iflue of vice j and that true virtue and dignity require no obedience to laws. Liberty is the natural endowment of innocence, confequentlya right to liberty infers virtue and dignity, which the re- publican always lays open claim to : whilft, on the other hand, fubjeclion is the cleared evidence of a vicious nature, and openly impeaches the worth and dignity of man. Here you may eafily conceive, why an elevated deportment, and alfo the tranquil and foftened ap- pearance of an eafy mind, become parts of the elegance we admire. They are the pictures or fymbois of internal virtue and innocence, which are the real ornaments of man. Now DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 225 To conceive a juft idea of the paffion of liberty, it is necefiary to make an efti- mate of the powers of human pride and conference, which form that pafilon. No one is able to bear a reproachful idea of himfelf, except thofe few Chriftians who are refolyed in earneft to attack their own vices, and to make the facrifice required by the gofpel. We fee the reft of the world making it the chief art of life, and employing the moft refined management, to produce to view an amiable picture of themfelves. Various treatifes have been written by divines and philofophers, on the manifold and impervious operations of pride; and yet no one ever perhaps had an idea of the extent of genius, and va- riety of artifice, by which pride conceals the corruption of our hearts. *The fana- tic indeed, in general terms, acknow- ledges the depravity and wretchednefs of his nature j but even this vague acknow- ledgement is feldom made, until he has Q. perfuaded 226 C L I O : o R, A perfuaded himfelf that he is actually pu- rified by the particular favour of Provi- dence. Pride is not thus employed in order to conceal us from others only ; its principal addrefs is to hide us from our- felves, and to fave us from the infuffer- able feelings of our own depravity, mifery, and meannefs. I join mifery and meannefs to depravity, becaufe we have a tacit fenfe of their aflbciation : we are afhamed of a vile and wretched ftate as if it were our own fault ; our blufhes for poverty fhew that in fentiment we acquit Providence of the evils of life, and place them at our own doors, although reafon be unable to trace our mifery from our crimes : we alfo conceive a relation between me- rit and happinefs j for which reafon peo- ple generally affecT: the appearance of hap- pinefs. In confequence of the attempt men make to impofe on themfelves, it is that we are generally ftrangers to the ela- borate operations and artifices of our own pride, even when it is moft bufily em- ployed DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 22; ployed ; for, the fame reafons that make us deceitful in this matter make us alfo defirous of remaining ftrangers to the de- ceit ; we are not willing to know, that we are hiding the corruption, whofe ex- iftence we would fain make a fecret to ourfelves. Now, in liberty, man aflerts the in- nocence and dignity he adores ; he revolts againft reftraint and ignominy ; he lays claim to an upright nature, and difclaims with infinite hatred the mifery and vice that make a defpotic government necef- fary to chain him down. The real grandeur and worth inferred by liberty, to man immerfed in the vice he loves, impatient of fhame, and liable to the outrage of confcience, is like the fuf- penfion of Prometheus's vulture. It lifts him out of meannefs and dejection ; it fooths him with a profpe£t of native ex- cellence ; it drives fervile fear at a dif- tance ; it enlarges and ennobles his foul ; Q.2 it 228 C L I O: OR, A it infpires him with language and at- titudes that aftonifh and ravifh, and with fublitne and celeftial ideas that bear him far above the human ftate. What a pity it is that fuch beauteous vifions have no reality but in the imagination ; that the fubje&ion we fly is as neceflary, as our vice and mifery are real ; and that the virtue and dignity afiumed by the haughty republican, is falfe and fpurious, fupported by mean hypocrify, and a pride that deceives and lies ! A. Enough, enough ; do not triumph in my affliction j I am an Englifli wo- man, and love liberty ; why do you trample with fuch infult on what is fo dear to me ? D. Donotmiftakeme,madam, I love li- berty with an enthufiaftic pafiion,but I am Well afTured it cannot be enjoyed in opu- lent improved Hates ; I alfo admire the noble DISCOURSE ON TASTE, 229 noble idea of human nature j but I know it is deceitful and falfe, and that man is by nature a vicious and miferable being, doomed to fubjeclion, fufferings, and ig- nominy. Let us follow the patriot hero, i who has refcued his country from flavery, furrounded with immortal glory, and covered with laurels ever-green, the em- blems of eternity ; and look upon him in the bed of ficknefs, opprefTed with vile old age, or aghaft and panting under the ftroke of death the conqueror, and afk ourfelves is this the end of glory? But be not caft down, madam j life is fhort and fleeting, and it is fated to infult and diftrefs by a hand we cannot refift : and indeed feeing that eternity lies before us, it is very happy for us, that it is not in the prefent world this fine appetite is to be fatisfied. The con- nection between the fine arts and free- dom, brought on the reflexions J made on the nature of government, which were neceffary to lead you to the fol- lowing 230 CLIO: OR, A lowing important truth, that the glorious idea that infpires all the arts, was not calculated for the prefent fcene : the en- thufiafm of genius bears very legibly the character of a flate infinitely fuperior to this ; where the poet, the orator, the fculptor and painter's ideas, that rife fo , far above nature, will meet equal objects. ^.You have given me fome confolation in hope: farewell, fweetundifturbed liberty, till we meet in heaven. I am glad the en- thufiafm that infpires the arts ends there; and that we have a revelation, even in our own bofoms, that we are born for a country of rapture. We may expect from the lofty views of Chriftianity, and its warmer zeal, much nobler flights of fancy than the heathens were capable of. D. I expected your religious fenti- raents would lead you to the reflection you make ; but to give you a perfect idea DISCOURSE ONTASTE. 23! idea of the origin and fpirit of the fine arts, I am obliged to inform you, that we muft not hope they fhould ever re- vive in their primitive luftre amongft us. Don't be ftartled, madam, the Goths and Vandals are not broke loofe ; it is Chrif- tianity itfelf that is unfavourable to fome of the elegant arts, and will not fuffer them to flouriih. A. This is indeed a ftroke I did not expeft. How is it poffible that the reli- gion, whofe fpirit is eternal beauty and virtue, fhould prove deftru&ive to tafte ; a religion that promifes fuch noble fates to the human foul ? I have a curiofity, and yet I am afraid to hear you. D. The little digreffion I juft made on the nature of the paffion of li. berty, was a neceflary introduction to fome reflections I am going to make on the influence of Chriftianity on the Q.4 fine 232 C LID: OR, A fine arts. I muft pray you to obferve carefully, that the Chriftian religion takes the fall of man, and its corrupt irate for its foundation, and ftridtly re- quires of us a deep fenfe of our natural wretchednefs and depravity. It is beyond the power of thought to form fo ftriking a pifture of human corruption as what is exhibited to us by the death of the Son of God. We may reflect upon it as long as we pleafe, but the warmeft imagination will never be able to reach, or comprehend, the boundJefs iniquity, that this immane facrifice fuggefts. The fixed defign and tenor of revelation is to imbue us with a fenfe of our mifery and vice, to render us lowly and humble in our own eyes, and to fubdue the delufive idea of our own excellence and worth. For this end, it inculcates felf-dcnial,penitence,contrition, and prayers, all of them the children of hu- mility and felf-condemnation. The con- ceptiqnit gives usof thehumanftate is very mortifying. You fee already, without fur- ther DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 233 ther preamble, that politenefs whofe end It is to make the people we con- verfe with pleafed with themfelves, is a dangerous commerce, that the beauties of elegance are fufpicious and falfe ; and that the haughty dignity af- fumed by the Greeks and Romans was a radical oppofition to Chriflianity. Here you may behold, open to your view, the rooted and implacable enmity that muft neceflarilyfubfiil between thefpiritof man, andChriftianity ; between the law of God, that draws our happinefs from humility, and the principle that elevates and flatters the human heart. You fee Christianity, like a defpotic and mercilefs tyrant, ftrip off from man all his natural beauty and merit ; and you fee the reafon, why lord Shaftefbury, and other writers who infift on the natural dignity of man, become pro- portioiiably enemies to Chriftianity. •When we take into confideration the true profpecl: of our religion, we know in a moment, why Chriftian faints, who were paffive 334 C L I O: OR, A pafiive and meek fufferers, and were hum- ble and lowly in their own eyes, are impro- per fubjecb of tragedy, epic poetry, fta- tuary, or painting ; and why modern poets are obliged to bring heathen heroes on the ftage, and give their favourite cha- ra&ers the haughty heathen fentiments of virtue ; by which means they fpecioufly undermine the principles of Chriftianity, and debauch the heart, by the beautiful pictures they draw of natural dignity and grandeur of foul. A. Cruel man ! to fet all I admire, and all I refpecl, at war in my breaft; to give me a fear and horror of the vir- tue and dignity I almoft adore j to debafe Chriftianity, and to fet all that is noble and great in oppofition to it. This is furely to feduce me from religion, and make me fling myfelf for relief on Deifm. How much kinder would it be in you, to reconcile religion and the elevating fentiments DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 235 fentiments that give us joy and pleafurc in our exiftence. D. I might have done fo, it is true, and decked out a flattering religion, agreeable to the modern tafte j for which almoft every one would give me fincere thanks ; but then it would not be real Chriftianity. However, let me obferve, that Chriftianity gives a much finer profpect than it takes away ; it only takes away a feducing, falfe, and painted picture of human excellence ; but in exchange, it lifts the curtain of futurity, and fhews you a prof- pect of human glory and beauty, that will never fade, fuperior to the vile infults of old age, to fortune, tyranny, or the grave. Although the fpurious picture of our own virtue gives us more gratification and pride, yet the ideas of Chriftianity are infinitely more fublime and affecting. The vafteft imagination poflefled 236 C L I O : o R, A poflefled by any of the human race, that has come to our knowledge, was un- doubtedly Homer's ; yet when moft on fiiT, how poor and inferior are his ideas of divine power, compared to thofe of the Scriptures j and it is when he ap- proaches to the Chriftian ideas, that his conceptions of the Gods are truly di- vine. The foul of man alfo, in ruins and depravity, is an object much more noble, and alfo more afFe<5ting than the heathen hero, although not fo flattering or beautiful. We all feel a deep fenfe of our native mifery, and the truth breaks in upon us from every quarter ; although we hide it like midnight confpirators, and dare not breathe it to our own hearing. It breaks in upon us in the midft of worldly pomp and pride, and appears ve'ry cbnfpicuouily in the puerile felicity we feel in the falfe {hew of drefs, the falfe dignity, honour, and eafe we af- fume ; all of which we know to be coun- terfeit and deceitful. Nothing difcovers the DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 237 theconfcious fenfe we have of our wretch- ednefs more than our eagernefs to get it out of view. The deift fhews his feeling of guilt, while he fortifies his fenfual heart with endlefs fophifms drawn round it, while he feeks to elude confcience, by arguments evidently fjiatched up by diftrefs and defpair. It is- the internal perception of human miferyr and of a mifgiving confcience, that give* irreilftible force to the wild rhapfodies of fanatics. It is in vain to reafon with? them againft a fentiment they really feel and experience j and their difcourfes are infectious, becaufe all mankind feel juft as they do. The fears of fuperftition are fentiments of the mind, which, like all other inftinclive fentiments, cannot be tried at the bar of reafon, and yet are better eftablifhed, and more prefent than the conclufions of reafon. When a horfe difcovers a lion breaking into the paf- tures, and moving towards him, he be- holds in his form and terrific motions, 6 evi- fi 238 CLIO: OR, A evidences of his might and fury, that will not fuffer him to hefitate or doubt. If the horfe were a modern philofopher, he mould, at the fight of an animal fo much beneath him in fize, await at leaft, and put his force to a trial, before he drew the fhameful conclufion ; he mould fufpecl that his dread was a prejudice for want of due examination, and he ought to fummon his reafon to his afliflance. But the horfe, by a fecret light of fenti- ment, which cannot be traced or ac- counted for, but which yet is very juft, meafures in a moment the power of the lion with his own, without fcale or com- pafs, without the laws of mechanics or geometry, and flies by the impreflion of an internal fenfe. In like manner the fanatic yields to a fenfe of his natural mifery in his own breaft, convicting as fate, although it be without fenfible proof, which generally drives him intoenthufiafm and predeftination for relief. Thus one party of the thoughtful and reflecting, get rid DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 239 rid of the terrours of Chriftianity by enthu- fiafm ; another party by philofophy and deifm, which are only different fhifts of hiding from the fame fpec~r.re. But the generality of mankind, who are enemies to thought, avoid the very approaches of it in diverfion and amufement. When Chriftianity appeared upon the earth, it was this affrighted fenfe that took the alarm againft it. The world did notregard the gofpelasafable,thatdeferved contempt, but as a two-edged fword that pierced their bofoms ; and accordingly they ftarted up and attacked it, with a deadly hatred, that cannot be attributed to any other caufe than uncommon terrour and refentment. You may call religious terrour, as men ge- nerally do, by thenameofyz^i?r/?///0», and then it is a human fentiment put into ri- dicule ; and indeed if men had not dread- ful terrours in their own bofoms, which they earneftly defire to keep in quiet and repofe, they would not difcover fo much refent- 240 CLIO: OR, A refentment as they ufually do againft the fuperftitious and fcrupulous, who other- wile are only objects of companion. It is certain, that Chriftianity, from the profpecl: it give us of our corruption and ruin, and the force it receives from our internal fentiments, is capable of more affecting and more fublime oratory, than the heathens were able to conceive ; but then it is terrific and unpleafmg to human nature, like the fea in ftorms about a mariner, who, from his little fkiff, that every moment feems to be overwhelmed, views the noble dreadful fcene ; but views it in fuch an- xiety as deftroys the beauty. Chriftians alfo ought, by all the rules of theory, to excel the heathens in mufic, whofe religious ideas are fo fuperiorly paf- fionate and noble. It is certain, that Chriftianity naturally familiarizes us to the great, the affecting, and plaintive paflions DISCOURSE ON TASTE, 241 i»" 'i pafllons that form the epic part of har- mony ; and it may be aflerted with fome degree of confidence, that wherever the tafte of mufic is revived, it will affift in awaking the other powers of genius, and imprefling the mind with a fublime habit of thinking. In ftatuary and painting, Chriftians have no profpecl of equalling the heathens. Paffion and pride are the very foul of painting j what recourfe then has the artift, when he draws the great models of Chriftianity, whofe glory it is to fuffer injuries with patience, and to ftifle the effedh of pride, its revenge, its difcontent, its majefty, and haughty port ? I before obferved, that the fpirit of Chriftianity is not favourable to tra- gedy ; and I believe I may add, that tra- gedy will never appear in fplendor, where men's ideas of human worth and merit are formed from genuine Chriftianity. R Since 242 C L I O : o R, A Since I have fpoken of the effects of Chriftianity on the fine arts, it is not wholly befide my defign, to obferve, what effedl infidelity, which gains ground over all thofe parts of Europe, where a difference in religion hath obtained, muft have on them. From what I have faid, it appears pretty evident, that where reli- gion is turned out, there all the arts, and tafte itfelf, muft utterly fet in darknefs and vanifti. The heathen religion, how- ever abfurd, imparted thofe noble ideas we find in the heathen works of genius 5 and religion is fo neceffary to preferve grandeur of thought, that Lucretius waa obliged, in his poetry, to pay his devo- tions to the gods he annihilated in his arguments. Indeed the fublime cannot fubfift without the awful and mighty views of religion : on which account great poets, whatever were their private opinions, were always in their works men of eminent piety. On the contrary, as infi- DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 243 infidelity advances and chills the enthu- iiafm of the mind, the divine and noble ideas mult perifh in poetry, oratory, fculp- ture, and painting. However enthufiafm be applied, it originally belongs to reli- gion, and muft perifh where religion is loft : genius therefore, which under Go- thic obfcurity was only opprefled and over- whelmed, but ftill ftruggled, muft fubmit to infidelity, and lie quietly in the grave : Epicurifm, or heathen infidelity, came into repute juft when the arts fell in Greece and Rome. I fhould have obferved before, that Chriftianity gives the beft profpecl: of that equality, that confti- tutes the moft valuable part of free- dom. Where the greateft poflible free- dom is enjoyed, there muft be in opu- lent ftates, a fubordination, and the croud muft be for ever diftrefled in their private circumftances : but the chriftian religion puts all upon a level j it opens R 2 views 244 C L I O : OR, A views of glory to the moft wretched, and ftamps every foul with infinite value. But when Amelia appears loft in thought and penfive in reflection, it is time to put an end to the difcourfe that occafions her concern. I fhall only mention in as few words as poffible, the refult of what we read, and of what we have juft now faid. There are in the foul original fentiments, which, when man has leifure to turn his attention to them, form his diftinguifhing character, his genuine tafte and judgment: thefe fentiments, together with the elegant arts they give rife to, and his obftinate affectation of worth and dignity, all difcover illuftnous marks of regal grandeur in the foul : this beloved grandeur we would fain affume in this life, for prefent pafTion naturally feeks prefent enjoyment ; and while we are de- lighted with the fublime idea of human nature, we fondly defire that liberty which DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 245 is the birthright of innocence : but to con- found and humble us, human corruption attends forever, and fcourges man back into vile fubjeclion, with the terrors of anarchy, confufion, murders, and in- fecurity. Society and laws are not the effects of choice, but of bitter neceffity, that never fuffered any people to remain in a ftate of freedom, where they had any poflefiions to be coveted : the ftern decree of bondage, along with the inclemencies of life, and its variety of wants and mife- ries, inform us in the language of the Almighty, that we are ruined, guilty, and condemned; confequently, that our pride and oppofition to fubjeclion, are prefump- tion, rebellion, and fin. The heathen religion, which allowed the reality of human rectitude and virtue, and appro- priated the enthufiaftic views to this life, gave room to genius to work miracles in free ftates, where the grandeur of hu- man nature became a principle of adion. But 24.6 CLIO OR, A But Chriftianity turns our fublime views from this world to their proper fcene, to a future life, and confines the flight and heroifm of the mind to devotion, fortitude in fuffering, patience, and to a noble conqueft of the paflions. A. The fine arts, I am convinced, bear a relation to a ftate in which we are not at prefent. I fee plainly, although thac ftate be furrounded with clouds, which deny a near view of it, yet that it is a ftate of amazing rapture and joy, and that the fine arts are indubitable proofs of the unfpeakable fublimity of the fpiritof man. Upon the whole, the profpe£t you have given me, I own is great ; but it is alfo melancholy and terrible. I am convinced that the heathen ideas of human virtue and grandeur were falfe and low ; yet they are very engaging, and I quit them with reluctance. I think I am like Eve taking her laft leave of the garden of 2 Eden, DISCOURSE ON TASTE. 247 Eden, with the whole world in profpeft before her, and heaven in her hope. However unbounded her new inheritance, and noble the promifes fhe received, yet fhe could not forbear looking back with a figh, and feeling a fecret inclination to remain. 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