out of place. In the Wild Gallant, the hero is a wretch constantly employ'd, not only in cheating his creditors, but in cheating his miftrefs, a lady of high rank and fortune. And how abfurd is the scene, where he convinces the father of his mistress that the devil had got him with child! The character of Sir Martin Marall is below contempt. The fcenes in the fame play, of a bawd inftructing one of her novices how to behave to her gallants, and of the novice practising her leffons, are perhaps not lower than Cobb's Tankard or Otter's Horfe, but furely they are lefs innocent.

"in

Portugal was rifing in power and fplendor when Camoens wrote the Lufiad; and with refpect to the mufic of verfe it has merit. The author however is far from fhining in point of taste. He makes a strange jumble of Heathen and Chriftian Deities. "Gama," obferves Voltaire," in a ftorm addreffes his prayers to “Christ, but it is Venus who comes to his relief." Voltaire's obfervation is but too well founded. In the first book, Jove fummons a council of the gods, which is defcribed at great length, for no earthly purpose but to fhow that he favoured the Portuguefe. Bacchus, on the other hand, declares against them upon the following account, that he himself had gained immortal glory as conqueror of the Indies; which would be eclipfed if the Indies fhould be conquered a fecond time by the Portuguefe. A Moorish commander having received Gama with fmiles, but with hatred in his heart, the poet brings down Bacchus from heaven to confirm the Moor in his wicked purpofes; which would have been perpetrated, had not Venus interpofed in Gama's behalf. In the second canto, Bacchus feigns himself to be a Christian, in order to deceive the Portuguese; but Venus implores her father Jupiter to protect them. And yet, after all, I am loth to condemn an early writer for introducing Heathen Deities as actors in a real hiftory, when in the age of Lewis XIV. celebrated for refinement of

tafte, we find French writers, Boileau in particular, guilty fometimes of the fame abfurdity (a).

Tho' tafte in France is more correct than in any other nation, it will bear ftill fome purification. The scene of a clyfter-pipe in Moliere is too low even for a farce; and yet to this day it is acted, with a few foftenings, before the moft polite audience in Europe.

In Elements of Criticifin (b) feveral caufes are mentioned that may retard tafte in its progrefs toward maturity, and that still more effectually may give it a retrograde motion when it is in maturity. There are many biaffes both natural and acquired that tend to mislead perfons even of the best taste. Of the latter, inftances are without number. I felect one or two to fhow what influence even the flightest circumstances have on tafte. The only tree beautiful at all feafons is the holly: in winter, its deep and fhining green intitles it to be the queen of the grove: in fummer, this colour completes the harmonious mixture of fhades fo pleafing in that feafon! Mrs D is lively and fociable. She in particular is eminent above most of her fex for a correct taste, difplay'd not only within doors but in the garden and in the field. Having become mistress of a great houfe by matrimony, the most honourable of all titles, a group of tall hollies, which had long been fuffered to obfcure a capital room, foon attracted her eye. She took an averfion to a holly, and was not at eafe till the group was extirpated. Such a bias is perfectly harmlefs. What follows is not altogether fo excufable. The Oxonians disliked the great Newton because he was educated at Cambridge; and they favoured every book writ against him. That bias, I hope, has not come down to the prefent time.

(a) Elements of Criticifm, chap. 22.
(b) Chap. 25.

Refinement

Refinement of tafte in a nation is always accompanied with refinement of manners: people accustomed to behold order and elegance in public buildings and public gardens, acquire urbanity in private. But it is irkfome to trudge long in a beaten track, familiar to all the world; and therefore, leaving what is faid above, like a ftatue curtail'd of legs and arms, I haften to the hiftory of the fine arts.

Useful arts paved the way to fine arts. Men upon whom the former had bestow'd every convenience, turned their thoughts to the latter. Beauty was ftudied in objects of fight; and men of taste attached themfelves to the fine arts, which multiply'd their enjoyments and improved their benevolence. Sculpture and painting made an early figure in Greece; which afforded plenty of beautiful originals to be copied in thefe imitative arts. Statuary, a more fimple imitation than painting, was fooner brought to perfection: the ftatue of Jupiter by Phidias and of Juno by Polycletes, tho' the admiration of all the world, were executed long before the art of light and fhade was known. Apollodorus, and Zeuxis his difciple, who flourished in the fifteenth Olympiad, were the first who figured in that art. Another caufe concurred to advance ftatuary before painting in Greece, viz. a great demand for statues of their gods. Architecture, as a fine art, made a flower progrefs. Proportions, upon which its elegance chiefly depends, cannot be accurately afcertained, but by an infinity of trials in great buildings: a model cannot be relied on; for a large and a finall building even of the fame form, require different proportions. Gardening, however, made a ftill flower progrefs than architecture: the palace of Alcinoous, in the seventh book of the Odyffey, is grand and highly ornamented; but his garden is no better than what we term a kitchen-garden.

The ancient churches in this ifland cannot be our own invention, being unfit for a cold climate. The vaft space they occupy, quantity

quantity of stone, and gloominefs by excluding the fun, afford a refreshing coolness, and fit them for a hot climate only. It is highly probable that they have been copied from the mofques in the fouth of Spain, erected there by the Saracens. Spain, when poffeffed by that people, was the centre of arts and fciences, and led the fashion in every thing beautiful and magnificent.

From the fine arts mentioned, we proceed to literature. It is agreed among all antiquaries, that the firft writings were in verse, and that writing in profe was of a much later date. The first Greek who wrote in profe, was Pherecides Syrus: the firft Roman, was Appius Cæcus, who compofed a declamation against Pyrrhus. The four books of the Chatah Bhade, which is the facred book of Hindoftan, are compofed in verfe ftanzas; and the Arabian compofitions in profe followed long after those in verse. To account for that fingular fact, many learned pens have been employ'd; but without fuccefs. By fome it has been urged, that as memory is the only record of events where writing is unknown, history originally was compofed in verfe for the fake of memory. This is not fatisfactory. To undertake the painful task of compofing in verfe merely for the fake of memory, would require more forefight than ever was exerted by a barbarian; not to mention that other means were used for preferving the memory of remarkable events, a heap of ftones, a pillar, or other object that catches the eye. The account given by Longinus is more ingenious. In a fragment of his treatise on verfe, the only part that remains, he observes," that measure or verfe belongs to poetry, because poetry represents the various paffions with their language; for which reafon the ancients, in their ordinary difcourfe, delivered "their thoughts in verfe rather than in profe." Longinus thought, that anciently men were more expofed to accidents and dangers, than when they were protected by good government and by fortified cities. But he seems not to have adverted, that fear

and

and grief, infpired by dangers and misfortunes, are better fuited to humble profe than to elevated verse. I add, that however natural poetical diction may be when one is animated with any vivid paffion, it is not fuppofable that the ancients never wrote nor fpoke but when excited by paffion. Their hiftory, their laws, their covenants, were certainly not compofed in that tone of mind.

1

.

An important article in the progrefs of the fine arts, which writers have not fufficiently attended to, will, if I mistake not, explain this mystery. The article is the profeffion of a bard, which fprung up in early times before writing was known, and died away gradually as writing turned more and more common. The curiosity of man is great with refpect to the tranfactions of his own fpecies; and when fuch tranfactions are defcribed in verse accompanied with mufic, the performance is enchanting. An ear, a voice, skill in instrumental mufic, and above all a poetical genius, are requifite to excel in that complicated art. As fuch talents are rare, the few that poffeffed them were highly esteemed; and hence the profeffion of a bard, which, beside natural talents, required more culture and exercise than any other known Bards were capital perfons at every festival and at every folemnity. Their fongs, which, by recording the atchievements of kings and heroes, animated every hearer, must have been the entertainment of every warlike nation. We have Hefiod's authority, that in his time bards were as common as potters or joiners, and as liable to envy. Demodocus is mentioned by Homer as a celebrated bard (a); and Phemius, another bard, is introduced by him deprecating the wrath of Ulyffes, in the following words.

art.

(a) Odyffey b. 8.