unfettled an idea as you choose to defcribe it. The truth is, tafte is nothing more than this universal sense of beauty, rendered more exquifite by genius, and more correct by cultivation: and it is from the fimple and original ideas of this fort, that the mind learns to form her judgment of the higher and more complex kinds. Accordingly, the whole circle of the imitative and Oratorical arts is governed by the fame general rules of criticifm; and to prove the certainty of these with refpect to any one of them, is to establish their validity with regard to all the rest. I will therefore confider the Criterion of Tafte in relation only to fine writing. Each species of compofition has its diftinct perfections: and it would require a much larger compafs than a letter affords, to prove their respective beauties to be derived from truth and nature; and confequently reducible to a regular and precife ftandard. I will only mention therefore thofe general properties which are effential to them all, and without which they must neceffarily be defective in their feveral kinds. Thefe, I think, may be comprehended under uniformity in the defign, variety and refemblance in the metaphors and fimilitudes, together with propriety and harmony in the diction. Now, fome or all of thefe qualities conflantly attend our ideas of beauty, and neceffarily raife that agree able perception of the mind, in what object foever they appear. The charms of fine compofition then, are fo far from exifting only in the heated imagination of an enthufiaftic admirer, that they refult from the conftitution of nature herfelf. And perhaps the principles of criticifm are as certain and indisputable, even as thofe of the mathematics. Thus, for inftance, that order is preferable to confufion, that harmony is more pleafing than diffonance, with fome few other axioms upon which the fcience is built; are truths which trike at once upon the mind with the fame force of conviction, as that the whole is greater than any of its parts, or, that if from equals you take away equals, the remainder will be equal. And in both cafes, the propofitions which reft upon these plain and obvious maxims, feem equally capable of the fame evidence of demonftration. But as every intellectual, as well as animal faculty is improved and ftrengthened by exercife; the more the foul exerts this her internal sense of beauty upon any par ticular object, the more fhe will enlarge and refine her relish for that peculiar fpecies. For this reafon the works of those great mafters, whofe performances have been long and generally admired, fupply a farther criterion of fine tafte, equally fixed and certain as that which is immediately derived from Nature herself. The truth is, fine writing is only the art of raifing agrecable fenfations of the intellectual kind; and therefore, as by examining thofe original forms which are adapted to awaken this perception in the mind, we learn what thofe qualities are which conftitute beauty in general; fo by obferving the peculiar conftruction of thofe compofitions of genius which have always pleafed, we perfect our idea of fine writing in particular. It is this united approbation, in perfons of different ages and of various characters and languages, that Longinus has made the teft of the true fublime; and he might with equal juftice have extended the fame criterion to all the inferior excellencies of elegant compofition. Thus the deference paid to the performances of the great mafters of antiquity, is fixed upon juft and folid reafons: it is not because Ariftotle and Horace have given us the rule of criticifm, that we muft fubmit to their authority; it is because thofe rules are derived from works which have been diftinguifhed by the uninterrupted admiration of all the more improved part of mankind, from their earliest appearance down to this prefent hour. For whatever, through a long feries of ages, has been univerfally esteemed as beautiful, cannot but be conformable to our juft and natural ideas of beauty. The oppofition, however, which fometimes divides the opinions of those whose judgments may be fuppofed equal and perfect, is urged as a powerful objection against the reality of a fixed canon of criticifm: it is a proof, you think, that after all which can be faid of fine tafte, it muft ultimately be refolved into the peculiar relish of each individual. But this diverfity of fentiments will not, of itself, deftroy the evidence of the criterion; fince the fame effect may be produced by numberlefs other caufes. A thousand accidental circumstances may concur in coun teracting the force of the rule, even allowing it to be ever fo fixed and invariable, when left in its free and uninfluenced state. Not to mention that false bias which party or perfonal dislike may fix upon the mind, the the most unprejudiced critic will find it difficult to difengage himfelf entirely from thofe partial affections in favour of particular beauties, to which either the general courfe of his ftudies, or the peculiar caft of his temper, may have rendered him moft fenfible. But as perfection in any works of genius refults from the united beauty and propriety of its feveral diftinct parts, and as it is impoffible that any human compofition fhould poffefs all thofe qualities in their highest and most fovereign degree; the mind, when the pronounces judgment upon any piece of this fort, is apt to decide of its merit, as thofe circumftances which the most admires, either prevail or are deficient. Thus, for inftance, the excellency of the Roman mafters in painting, confifts in beauty of defign, nobleness of attitude, and delicacy of expreflion; but the charms of good colouring are wanting. On the contrary, the Venetian school is faid to have neglected defign a little too much; but at the fame time has been more attentive to the grace and harmony of well-difpofed lights and fhades. Now it will be admitted by all admirers of this noble art, that no compofition of the pencil can be perfect, where either of thefe qualities are abfent; yet the most accomplished judge may be fo particularly ftrack with one or other of thefe excellencies, in preference to the reft, as to be influenced in his cenfure or applaufe of the whole tablature, by the predominancy or deficiency of his favourite beauty. Something of this kind (where the meaner prejudices do not operate) is ever, I am perfuaded, the occafion of that diverfity of fentences which we occafionally hear pronounced by the most approved judges on the fame piece. But this only fhews that much caution is neceffary to give a fine taste its full and unobstructed effect; not that it is in itself uncertain and precarious. Fitzofborne. § 241. Reflections upon feeing Mr. POPE's Houfe at Binfield. In a Letter. Your letter found me just upon my return from an excurfion into Berkshire, where I have been paying a visit to a friend, who is drinking the waters at Sunning-Hill. In one of my morning rides over that delightful country, I accidentally paffed through a little village, which afforded me much agreeable meditation; as in times to come, perhaps, it will be vifited by the lovers of the polite arts, with as much veneration as Virgil's tomb, or any other celebrated fpot of antiquity. The place I mean is Binfield, where the Poet, to whom I am indebted (in common with every reader of tafte) for fo much exquifite entertainment, spent the earliest part of his youth. I will not fcruple to confefs that I looked upon the fcene where he planned fome of those beautiful performances which firft recommended him to the notice of the world, with a degree of enthusiasm; and could not but confider the ground as facred that was impreffed with the footsteps of a genius that undoubtedly does the highest honour to our age and nation. The fituation of mind in which I found myfelf upon this occafion, fuggefted to my remembrance a paffage in Tully, which I thought I never to thoroughly entered into the fpirit of before. That noble author, in one of his philofophical converfationpieces, introduces his friend Atticus as obferving the pleafing effect which fcenes of this nature are wont to have upon one's mind: "Movemur enim," fays that polite Roman, " nefcio quo pacto, locis ipfis, "in quibus eorum, quos diligimus aut ad"miramur, adfunt veftigia. Me quidem ipfe illæ noftræ Athena, non tam ope"ribus magnificis exquifitifque antiquo rum artibus delectant, quam recorda«tione fummorum virorum, ubi quifque "habitare, ubi federe, ubi difputare fit "folitus." Thus, you fee, I could defend myself by an example of great authority, were I in danger upon this occafion of being ridiculed as a romantic vifionary. But I am too well acquainted with the refined fentiments of Orontes, to be under any apprehenfion he will condemn the impreffions I have here acknowledged. On the contrary, I have often heard you mention with approbation a circumftance of this kind which is related of Silius Italicus. The annual ceremonies which that poet performed at Virgil's fepulchre, gave you a more favourable opinion of his tafte, you confeffed, than any thing in his works was able to raise. It is certain that fome of the greatest names of antiquity have diftinguished themfelves by the high reverence they fhewed to the poetical character. Scipio, you may remember, defired to be laid in the fame tomb with Ennius; and I am inclined to pardon that fuccefsful madman Alexander many of his extravagancies, for the generous generous regard he paid to the memory of concealed to me with other common ob Pindar, at the facking of Thebes. fervers. Fitzofborne. There feems, indeed, to be fomething in poetry that raises the profeffors of that very fingular talent, far higher in the eftimation of the world in general, than those who excel in any other of the refined arts. And accordingly we find that poets have been diftinguished by antiquity with the most remarkable honours. Thus Homer, we are told, was deified at Smyrna; as the citizens of Mytilene ftamped the image of Sappho upon their public coin: Anacreon received a folemn invitation to spend his days at Athens, and Hipparchus, the fon of Piliftratus, fitted out a fplendid veel in order to tranfport him thither and when Virgil came into the theatre at Rome, the whole audience rofe up and faluted him, with the fame respect as they would have paid to Augulus himfelf. Painting, one would imagine, has the fairest pretensions of rivalling her fifter art in the number of admirers; and yet, where Apelles is mentioned once, Homer is celebrated a thoufand' times. Nor can this be accounted for by urging that the works of the latter are till extant, while thofe of the former have perished long fince: for is not Milton's Paradife Loit more univerfally efteemed than Raphael's Cartoons? The truth, I imagine, is, there are more who are natural judges of the harmony of numbers, than of the grace of proportions. One meets with but few who have not, in fome degree at least, a tolerable ear; but a judicious eye is a far more uncommon poffeffion. For as words are the univerfal medium which all men employ in order to convey their fentiments to each other; it feems a juft confequence that they should be more generally formed for relishing and judging of performances in that way: whereas the art of reprefenting ideas by means of lines and colours, lies more out of the road of common ufe, and is therefore lefs adapted to the tafle of the general run of mankind. I hazard this obfervation, in the hopes of drawing from you your fentiments upon a fubject, in which no man is more qualified to decide; as indeed it is to the converfation of Orontes, that I am indebted for the difcovery of many refined delicacies in the imitative arts, which, without his judicious affiftance, would have lain § 242. Concerning the Ufe of the Ancient Mythology in Modern Peetry. In a Let ter. If there was any thing in any former letter inconfiftent with that esteem which is juftly due to the ancients, I defire to retract it in this ; and difavow every expreffion which might feem to give precedency to the moderns in works of genius. I am fo far indeed from entertaining the fentiments you impute to me, that I have often endeavoured to account for that fuperiority which is fo vifible in the compofitions of their poets: and have frequently aligned their religion as in the number of thofe caufes which probably concurred to give them this remarkable pre-eminence. That enthufiafm which is fo effential to every true artist in the poetical way, was confiderably heightened and enflamed by the whole turn of their facred doctrines; and the fancied prefence of their Mufes had almoft as wonderful an effect upon their thoughts and language, as if they had been really and divinely inspired. Whilft all nature was fuppofed to fwarm with divinities, and every oak and fountain was believed to be the refidence of fome prefiding deity; what wonder if the poet was animated by the imagined infiuence of fuch exalted fociety, and found himself tranfported beyond the ordinary limits of fober humanity? The mind when attended only by mere mortals of fuperior powers, is obferved to rife in her ftrength; and her faculties open and enlarge themfelves when the acts in the view of thofe, for whom fhe has conceived a more than common reverence. But when the force of fuperftition moves in concert with the powers of imagination, and genius is enflamed by devotion, poetry must fhine out in all her brightest perfection and fplendor. Whatever, therefore, the philofopher might think of the religion of his country; it was the intereft of the poet to be thoroughly orthodox. If he gave up his creed, he muft renounce his numbers: and there could be no infpiration, where there were no Mufes. This is so true, that it is in compofitions of the poetical kind alone that the ancients feem to have the principal advantage over the moderns: in every other fpecies of writing one might venture perhaps to affert, that thefe latter ages have, at leaft, equalled them. When I fay fo, I do not confine myself to the productions of our own nation, but comprehend likewife those of our neighbours: and with that extent the obfervation will poffibly hold true, even without an exception in favour of history and oratory. But whatever may with juftice be determined concerning that queftion, it is certain, at least, that the practice of all fucceeding poets confirms the notion for which I Iain principally contending. Though the altars of Paganifm have many ages fince been thrown down, and groves are no longer facred; yet the language of the poets has not changed with the religion of the times, but the gods of Greece and Rome are still adored in modern verfe. Is not this a confession, that fancy is enlivened by fuperftition, and that the ancient bards catched their rapture from the old mythology? I will own, however, that I think there is fomething ridiculous in this unnatural adoption, and that a modern poet makes but an aukward figure with his antiquated gods. When the Pagan fyftem was fanctified by popular belief, a piece of machinery of that kind, as it had the air of probability, afforded a very ftriking manner of celebrating any remarkable circumstance, or raifing any common one. But now that this fuperftition is no longer fupported by vulgar opinion, it has loft its principal grace and efficacy, and feems to be, in general, the moit cold and uninteresting method in which a poet can work up his fentiments. What, for inftance, can be more unaffecting and fpiritless, than the compliment which Boileau has paid to Louis the XIVch on his famous paffage over the Rhine? He reprefents the Naiads, you may remember, as alarming the god of that river with an account of the march of the French monarch; upon which the rivergod affumes the appearance of an old experienced commander, and flies to a Dutch fort, in order to exhort the garrifon to fally out and difpute the intended paffage. Accordingly they range themfelves in form of battle, with the Khine at their head; who, after fome vain efforts, obferving Mars and Bellona on the fide of the enemy, is fo terrified with the view of thofe fuperior divinities, that he most gallantly runs away, and leaves the hero in quiet poffeffion of his banks. I know not how far this may be relifhed by critics, or juftified by custom; but as I am only mentioning my particular tafte, I will acknowledge, that it appears to me extremely infipid and puerile. I have not, however, fo much of the fpirit of Typhoeus in me, as to make war upon the gods without restriction, and attempt to exclude them from their whole poetical dominions. To reprefent natural, moral, or intellectual qualities and affections as perfons, and appropriate to them thofe general emblems by which their powers and properties are ufually typified in Pagan theology, may be allowed as one of the moft pleafing and graceful figures of poetical rhetoric. When Dryden, addrefling himself to the month of May as to a perfon, fays, For thee the Graces lead the dancing hours; one may confider him as speaking only in metaphor: and when such shadowy beings are thus juft fhown to the imagination, and immediately withdrawn again, they certainly have a very powerful effect. But I can relish them no farther than as figures only; when they are extended in any ferious compofition beyond the limits of metaphor, and exhibited under all the various actions of real perfons, I cannot but confider them as fo many abfurdities, which custom has unreasonably patronized. Thus Spenfer, in one of his paftorals, reprefents the god of love as flying, like a bird, from bough to bough. A fhepherd, who hears a rultling among the bushes, fuppofes it to be fome game, and accordingly difcharges his bow. Cupid returns the fhot, and after feveral arrows had been mutually exchanged between them, the unfortunate swain difcovers whom it is he is contending with: but as he is endeavouring to make his escape, receives a defperate wound in the heel. This fiction makes the fubject of a very pretty idyllium in one of the Greek poets; yet is extremely flat and difgufting as it is adopted by our British bard. And the reafon of the difference is plain: in the former it is fupported by a popular fuperftition; whereas no ftrain of imagination can give it the leaft air of probability, as it is worked up by the latter, Quodcunque mihi oftendis fic, incredulus odi. HOR. I must confefs, at the fame time, that the inimitable Prior has introduced this fabulous fcheme with fuch uncommon grace, and has paid fo many genteel com 1 i pliments pliments to his mistress by the affiftance of Venus and Cupid, that one is carried off from obferving the impropriety of this machinery, by the pleafing addrefs with which he manages it: and I never read his tender poems of this kind, without applying to him what Seneca fomewhere fays upon a fimilar occafion: Major ille eft qui judicium abftulit, quam qui meruit. To fpeak my fentiments in one word, I would leave the gods in full poffeffion of allegorical and burlefque poems: in all others I would never fuffer them to make their appearance in perfon and as agents, but to enter only in fimile or allufion. It is thus Waller, of all our poets, has moit happily employed them: and his applica tion of the ftory of Daphne and Apollo will ferve as an inftance, in what manner the ancient mythology may be adopted with the utmost propriety and beauty. Fitzofborne. If the ingenious piece you communicated to me, requires any farther touches of your pencil, I must acknowledge the truth to be, what you are inclined to fufpect, that my friendship has impofed upon my judgment. But though in the prefent inftance your delicacy feems far too refined; yet, in general, I must agree with you, that works of the most permanent kind, are not the effects of a lucky moment, nor ftruck out at a fingle heat. The beft performances, indeed, have generally coft the moft labour; and that eafe, which is fo effential to fine writing, has feldom been attained without repeated and fevere corrections: Ludentis fpeciem dabit et torquebitur, is a motto that may be applied, I believe, to moft fuccefsful authors of genius. With as much facility as the numbers of the natural Prior feem to have flowed from him, they were the refult (if I am not mifinformed) of much application: and a friend of mine, who undertook to tranfcribe one of the nobleft performances of the finest genius that this, or perhaps any age can boaft, has often affured me, that there is not a fingle line, as it is now publifhed, which ftands in conformity with the original manufcript. The truth is, every fentiment has its peculiar expreffion, and every word its precife place, which do not always immediately prefent themfelves, and generally demand frequent trials, before they can be properly adjusted: not to mention the more important difficulties, which neceffarily occur in fettling the plan and regulating the higher parts which compose the structure of a finished work. Thofe, indeed, who know what pangs it cofts even the moft fertile genius to be delivered of a juft and regular production, might be inclined, perhaps, to cry out with the most ancient of authors, Oh! that mine adverfary had written a book! A writer of refined tafte has the continual mortification to find himself incapable of taking entire poffeflion of that ideal beauty which warms and fills his imagination. His conceptions ftill rife above all the powers of his art, and he can but faintly copy out thofe images of perfection, which are impreffed upon his mind. Never was any thing, fays Tully, more beautiful than the Venus of Apelles, or the Jove of Phidias; yet were they by no means equal to those high notions of beauty which animated the gentiles of those wonderful artifts. In the fame manner, he obferves, the great mafters of oratory imagined to themselves a certain perfection of eloquence, which they could only contemplate in idea, but in vain attempted to draw out in expreffion. Perhaps no author ever perpetuated his reputation, who could write up to the full standard of his own judgment: and I am perfuaded that he, who upon a furvey of his compofitions can with entire complacency pronounce them good, will hardly find the world join with him in the fame favourable fentence. The moft ju licious of all poets, the inimitable Virgil, ufed to refemble his productions to thofe of that animal, who, agreeably to the notions of the Ancients, was fuppofed to bring forth her young into the world, a mere rude and shapeless mafs; he was obliged to retouch them again and again, he acknowledged, before they acquired their proper form and beauty. Accordingly we are told, that after having spent eleven years in compofing his Æneid, he intended to have fet apart three more for the revifal of that glorious performance. But being prevented by his laft fickness from giving thofe finishing touches, which his exquifite judgment conceived to be ftill neceffary, he directed his friends Tucca and Varius to burn the noblest poem that ever appeared in the Roman language. In the fame fpirit of delicacy, Mr. Dryden tells us, that had he taken more |