siasm; and where the habit of criticism pre vails, the ardour of feeling is proportionally abated and subdued *. But, on the other E e 4

This effect has been well remarked by an elegant writer, whose Essay on the Nature and Principles of Taste stands in the first rank among the works of philosophical criticism.

"When we sit down to appreciate the value of a poem, or "of a painting, and attend minutely to the language or composition of the one, or to the colouring or design of the "other, we feel no longer the delight which they at first pro"duce. Our imagination in this employment is restrained,

and instead of yielding to its suggestions, we studiously "endeavour to resist them, by fixing our attention upon mi"nute and partial circumstances of the composition. How "much this operation of the mind tends to diminish our

sense of its beauty, every one will feel, who attends to his

own thoughts on such an occasion, or who will recollect "how different was his state of mind, when he first felt the "beauty either of the painting or of the poem. It is this "chiefly which makes it so difficult for young people, posses

sed of imagination, to judge of the merits of any poem or fable, and which induces them so often to give their approbation to compositions of little value. It is not, that they are incapable of learning in what the merits of such compositions consist, for these principles of judgment are "neither numerous nor abstruse. It is not that greater experience produces greater sensibility; for this every thing. " contradicts; but it is, because every thing, in that period of life, is able to excite their imaginations, and to move.

СНАР.

IV.

BOOK IL hand, this moderation of our emotions is absolutely essential to the formation of a

"their hearts, because they judge of the composition not by
"its merits, when compared with other works, or by its ap-
"proach to any abstract or ideal standard, but by its effect
"in agitating their imaginations, and leading them into that
"fairy land, in which the fancy of youth has so much de-
light to wander. It is their own imagination which has
"the charm, which they attribute to the work that excites
"it; and the simplest tale, or the poorest novel, is, at that
"time, as capable of awakening it, as afterwards the elo-
quence of Virgil or Rousseau. All this, however, all this.
"flow of imagination, in which youth, and men of sensibi-
lity, are so apt to indulge, and which so, often brings them
pleasure at the expence of their taste, the labour of criti-
"cism destroys. The mind, in such an employment, in-
"instead of being at liberty to follow whatever trains of
"imagery the composition before it can excite, is either fet-
"tered to the consideration of some of its minute and soli-,

*

tary parts; or pauses amidst the rapidity of its concep"tions, to make them the objects of its attention and review... "In these operations, accordingly, the emotion, whether of "beauty or sublimity, is lost; and if it is wished to be re

cr

called, it can only be done by relaxing this vigour of atten"tion, and resigning ourselves again to the natural stream " of our thoughts. The mathematician who investigates the.

demonstrations of the Newtonian philosophy, the painter "who studies the designs of Raphael, the poet who reasons.

66

upon the measure of Milton, all, in such occupations, lose. "the delight which these several productions can give; and. "when they are willing to recover their emotion, must with

good taste, which is not a simple and original endowment of the mind, but a compound faculty, the result of natural sensibility, and of judgment exercised in the weighing of means as adapted to their ends, in the comparing of objects, and observing their conformity in a regular work, to the laws of order, decorum, and congruity. Without this discipline of the mind, there may be much natural acuteness of feeling, and yet not a tincture of good taste; as we observe every day in children, and in rustics, who often exhibit most lively emotions from the productions of the imitative arts; but are pleased with a very small, degree of excellence, and are insensible often to the grossest defects and improprieties. The pleasure enjoyed by the rude and uninstructed mind, is, no doubt, equally genuine, and may perhaps be equally acute with that which is the fruit of the most cultivated taste; but none surely will contend, that it

CHAP.

IV.

"draw their attention from those minute considerations, and "leave their fancy to expatiate at will, amid all the great or "pleasing conceptions, which such productions of genius can "raise."-ALISON's Essay on the Nature and Principles of Taste, p. 7.

BOOK II, is alike dignified in its nature, or equally worthy of a rational being *.

Those distinct faculties of the mind which are necessary to the production of all the works of imagination that are fitted to give rational pleasure, and the separate function of each in the composition of such works, have been most happily described by the philosophic pen of D'Alembert, who, at the same time, combats a mistaken notion of very general currency, That the genius which creates, and the judgment which corrects and chastises, are frequently at variance, and instead of giving mutual aid, are often destructive of each other's power and operation. "Ajoutons qu'il n'est point à "craindre que la discussion et l'analyse émoussent le senti"ment, ou refroidissent le génie dans ceux qui possedent "d'ailleurs ces précieux dons de la nature. Le philosophe

ແ sait, que dans le moment de la production, le génie ne ❝ veut aucune contrainte, qu'il aime à courir sans frein et

sans règle; à produire les monstrueux à côté du sublime, " à rouler impétueusement l'or et le limon tout ensemble. La "raison donne donc au génie qui crée une liberté entière,*

elle lui permet de s'épuiser, jusqu'à ce qu'il ait besoin de "repos; comme ces coursiers fougueux, dont on ne vient à "bout qu'en les fatiguant. Alors il revient séverement sur "les productions du génie, elle conserve ce qui est l'effêt du "véritable enthousiasme, elle proscrit ce qui est l'ouvrage de "la fougue, et c'est ainsi qu'elle fait éclorre les chefs-d'œu

vres. Quel écrivain, s'il n'est pas entièrement dépourvu "de talent et de goût, n'a pas remarqué que dans la chaleur "de la composition, une partie de son ésprit reste en quel"que manière à l'écart, pour observer celle qui compose, et pour lui laisser un libre cours, et qu'elle marque d'avance ❝ ce qui doit être effacé."-D'ALEMBERT Mélanges de Literat, et de Philos.

IV.

Nature of

taste.

I am led by the train of the preceding CHAP. observations, here to take notice of a question which I have heard frequently canvas the author's sed, namely, whether the author of Elements of Criticism was really possessed of a great portion of native sensibility, and warmly awake to the emotions excited by the productions of the fine arts; or whether his taste was not rather the result of study, and of attention to those very rules and canons of criticism, which he had framed from a careful examination of those great produc tions of the fine arts of which the excellence is universally acknowledged. A présumption, it must be owned, arises from the very nature of his work, which displays a continued exercise of the reasoning powers, and the most minute and patient attention to the operations of the mind, that the man thus eminently qualified for the investigation of the laws which regulate our emotions, was not himself subject to those emotions in a very acute degree, of which a too lively feeling impedes for the time all capacity of speculating on their causes. A strong native sense of the sublime and beautiful is constantly attended with a degree of