Essay III. which it is formed. It occurs, indeed, in its most perfect state, as seldom as originality of genius; and, when united with industry, and with moderate powers of execution, it will go farther, in such an age as the present, to secure success in the arts with which it is conversant, than the utmost fertility of invention, where the taste is unformed or perverted.

With respect to this native or indigenous Taste, it is particularly worthy of observation, that it is always more strongly disposed to the enjoyment of Beauties, than to the detection of Blemishes. It is, indeed, by a quick and lively perception of the former, accompanied with a spirit of candour and indulgence towards the latter, that its existence in the mind of any individual is most unequivocally marked. It is this perception which can alone evince that sensibility of temperament, of which a certain portion, although it does not of itself constitute Taste, is nevertheless the first and most essential element in its composition; while it evinces, at the same time, those habits of critical observation and cool reflection, which, allowing no impression, how slight soever, to pass unnoticed, seem to awaken a new sense of Beauty, and to create that delicacy of feeling which they only disclose. We are told of Saunderson, the blind mathematician, that in a series of Roman medals, he could distinguish by his hand the true from the counterfeit, with a more unerring discrimination than the eye of a professed Virtuoso ; and we are assured by his biographer, Mr Colson, that when he was present at the astronomical ebser

sun.

vations in the garden of his college, he was accustomed to remark every cloud that passed over the The effect of the blindness of this extraordinary person was not surely to produce any organical change in his other perceptive powers. It served only to quicken his attention to those slighter perceptions of touch, which are overlooked by men to whom they convey no useful information. The case I conceive to be perfectly analogous in matters which fall under the cognizance of intellectual taste. Where nature bas denied all sensibility to beauty, no study or instruction can supply the defect; but it may be possible, nevertheless, by awakening the attention to things neglected before, to develope a latent sensibility where none was suspected to exist. In all men, indeed, without exception, whether their natural sensibility be strong or weak, it is by such habits of attention alone to the finer feelings of their own minds, that the power of taste can acquire all the delicacy of which it is susceptible.

While this cultivated sensibility enlarges so widely to the man who possesses it the pleasures of Taste, it has a tendency, wherever it is gratified and delighted in a high degree, to avert his critical eye from blemishes and imperfections ;-not because he is unable to remark them, but because he can appreciate the merits by which they are redeemed, and loves to enjoy the beauties in which they are lost. A Taste thus awake to the Beautiful seizes eagerly on every touch of genius with the sympathy of kindred affection; and, in the secret consciousness of a congenial inspiration, shares, in some measure, the

triumph of the Artist. The faults which have escaped him, it views with the partiality of friendship; and willingly abandons the censorial office to those who exult in the errors of superior minds as their appropriate and easy prey.

Nor is this indulgent spirit towards the works of others at all inconsistent with the most rigid severity in an author towards his own. On the contrary, both are the natural consequences of that discriminating power of taste, on which I have already enlarged as one of its most important characteristics. Where men of little discernment attend only to general effects, confounding beauties and blemishes, flowers and weeds, in one gross and undistinguishing perception, a man of quick sensibility, and cultivated judgment, detaches, in a moment, the one from the other; rejects, in imagination, whatever is offensive in the prospect, and enjoys without alloy what is fitted to please. His taste, in the meantime, is refined and confirmed by the exercise; and, while it multiplies the sources of his gratification in proportion to the latent charms which it detects, becomes itself, as the arbiter and guide of his own genius, more scrupulous and inflexible than before. "The tragedy of Douglas," says Gray in one of his letters, "has infinite faults; but there is one scene (that between Matilda and the Old Peasant) so "masterly, that it strikes me blind to all the de"fects of the piece." These, I apprehend, are the natural impressions of genuine taste in pronouncing on the merits of works of genuine excellence; impressions, however, which they who are conscious

of them have not always the candour either to indulge or to avow.-Such, also, was the feeling which dictated a memorable precept of La Bruyere, of which I will not impair the force, by attempting a translation: "Quand une lecture vous éléve l'esprit, "et qu'elle yous inspire des sentimens nobles et "courageux, ne cherchez pas une autre règle pour juger de l'Ouvrage; il est bon, et fait de main "d'Ouvrier."-How different both sentiments from that fastidiousness of Taste, by an affectation of which it is usual for little minds to court the reputation of superior refinement ! *

In producing, however, this fastidiousness, whether affected or real, various moral causes, such as jealousy, rivalship, personal dislike, or the spleen of conscious inferiority,-may conspire with the intellectual defects which have been mentioned: Nay, the same moral causes may be conceived to be so powerful in their influence, as to produce this unfortunate effect, in spite of every intellectual gift which nature and education can bestow. It is observed by Shenstone, that " good taste and good "nature are inseparably united ;" and, although the observation is by no means true when thus stated as an unqualified proposition, it will be found to have a sufficient foundation in fact, to deserve the attention of those who have a pleasure in studying the varieties of human character. One thing is certain, that as a habitual deficiency in good humour is sufficient to warp the decisions of the soundest taste, so the taste of an individual, in proportion as it ap*Note (R r.)

pears to be free from capricious biasses, affords a strong presumption, that the temper is unsuspicious, open, and generous. As the habits, besides, which contribute spontaneously to the formation of Taste, all originate in the desire of intellectual gratification, this power, where it is possessed in an eminent degree, may be regarded as a symptom of that general disposition to be pleased and happy, in which the essence of good-nature consists. "In those "vernal seasons of the year," says Milton, in one of the finest sentences of his prose writings," when "the air is soft and pleasant, it were an injury and "sullenness against nature, not to go out and see "her riches, and partake of her rejoicings with "heaven and earth."-Such is the temper of mind by which, in our early years, those habits which form the ground-work of Taste are most likely to be formed; and such, precisely, is the temper which, in our intercourse with our fellow-creatures, disposes us, both for their sakes and for our own, to view their actions and characters on the fairest side. I need scarcely add, in confirmation of some remarks formerly made, that the same temper, when transferred from the observation of nature to the study of the fine arts, can scarcely fail to incline the taste more strongly to the side of admiration than of cen

sure.

After all, however, maxims of this sort must necessarily be understood as liable to many exceptions. The love of nature itself, even when accompanied with that general benevolence towards our own species with which it is in youth invariably attended, is