tion. Habits of reflection, with fome experience of misfortune, do greatly promote the amiable fenfibility of which we now fpeak. Non ignara mali miferis fuccurrere difco, fays Dido in Virgil. Inconfiderate men are seldom tender-hearted, and mere want of reflection leads children into acts of cruelty. SECT. XI. of Tafte. 228. THAT faculty, or those faculties, which fit us for receiving plea fure from what is beautiful, elegant, or excellent, in the works of nature and art, has in modern times been called Tafte. He who derives no pleasure from fuch elegance, excellence, or beauty, is faid to be a man of no tafte: he who is gratified with that which is faulty in works of art, is a man of bad tafte: and he who is pleased, or displeased, according to the de gree gree of excellence or faultinefs, is a man of good tafte. This way of expreffing critical fagacity by an allufion to the fenfations received by the tongue and palate, though it be now found in most of the languages of Europe, is of no great antiquity. Petronius indeed ufes Sapor in this fenfe from which, as well as from many other circumstances, I fufpect, that the trifling book which bears that name is partly modern. : 229. Good tafte implies feveral talents or faculties. The firft is a lively imagination. This qualifies a man for readily apprehending the meaning of an author or artist, tracing out the connection of his thoughts, and forming the fame views of things which he had formed. Without this talent, it is impoffible to form a right judgement of an author's work. Delicacy of connection, and fuch contrivances in a fable or story as tend to produce furprife, are among the chief beauties of poetry; but thefe a man of dull imagination is apt to overlook, or not to understand. This livelinefs of fancy must be corrected and regulated by the knowledge knowledge of nature both external and internal, that is, both of the visible universe, and of the human mind. For he who is unacquainted with nature can never be a man of taste; because he cannot know whether the productions of art refemble nature or not: and, if he know not this, he cannot receive from the imitative arts any real fatisfaction. : 230. The second thing neceffary to good tafte is, a clear and diftinct apprehenfion of things. Some men think accurately on all fubjects: the thoughts of other men are almost always indefinite and obfcure. The former easily make you comprehend their meaning the latter can never fpeak intelligibly except upon familiar topics. He who is master of his fubject, fays Horace, will not be at a lofs either for expreffion or for method: whence we may learn, that accurate knowledge is the beft, and indeed the only folid, foundation of true eloquence. Lord Chesterfield feems to think otherwife; but the eloquence he recommends is, like his favourite system of manners, not folid, but fhowy and fuperficial.—It is plain, that that they who are accustomed to think with precision must be the only competent judges of what they study, because they alone can thoroughly understand it. Habits of accuracy and method will gradually improve the mind in this respect: and indeed study is good for little when it is not methodical and accurate. 231. The third thing neceffary to good. tafte, is a quick perception of, or a capacity of being easily and pleasurably affected with, those objects that gratify the fecondary fenfes, particularly fublimity, beauty, harmony, and imitation. In this refpect different minds are differently constituted. Many have little or no tafte for harmony. either in language or in musical found. Some have great talents in wit and humour, with hardly any relish for the fublime and beautiful Swift is an instance. Others, like Milton, have an exquifite invention in regard to fublimity and beauty of description, and harmony of language, without any talents for wit or delicate humour. And fome have excelled both in fublimity and in wit; as Shakespeare did in a high degree, 4 degree, and Pope in a very confiderable dégree. Homer, too, is faid by Ariftotle to · have excelled in ludicrous as well as fublime compofition, and to have written a comic poem, called Margites, which is loft. -The only way of improving the Secondary fenfes, is by studying nature and the best performances in art; by cultivating habits of virtue; and by keeping at a distance from every thing grofs and indelicate, in books and conversation, in manners and in language. 232. The fourth thing necessary to good tafte, is that Sympathy or Senfibility above defcribed; by which, fuppofing ourselves in the condition of other men, we readily adopt their fentiments and feelings, and make them as it were our own; and fo receive from them fome degree of that pain or pleasure which they would bring along with them if they were really our own. Without this moral fenfibility, our minds would not be open to receive those emotions of pity, joy, admiration, forrow, and imaginary terror, which the best perfor mances in the fine arts, particularly in A a poetry, |