THE PREFACE. HE Author of the following Papers chufes to call them SKETCHES; as the leaft imperfect amongst them is to a laboured treatise, what the painter's outlines, or his firft rude draughts, are to a finished picture. This declaration, he hopes, will be accepted by the proper judges of writing, as a fufficient apology for any thing, either in thought or expreffion, that may be found carclefs or incorrect in his ESSAYS. He owns he could have given thefe little loofe fragments much bolder strokes, as well as more delicate touches: but as an author's renown depends at prefent upon the mobility, he dreads the danger of writing too well; and feels the value of his own labour too fenfibly, to bestow it where, in all probability, it might only ferve to depreciate his performance. SKETCHES; ALMOST every one that can read, definition, I should call it the shorteft, pretends to judge of the author's ftyle, as it is called: but how few are there who really know good language from bad! Even the bett judges are fometimes divided in their opinions; for want, it would feem, of a common ftandard by which the merits of different languages, as well as of different writers in the fame language, might be compared. If I was to reduce my own private idea of the best language to a cleareft, and eafieft way of expreffing one's thoughts, by the most harmonious arrangement of the beft chofen words, both for meaning and found. The best language is ftrong and expreffive, without ftiffness or affectation; fhort and concife, without being either obfcure or ambiguous; and easy and flowing and difengaged, without one undetermined or fuperfluous word. masterly in the arts which imitate nature, in poetry, painting, ftatuary, and mufic. On the other fide, where the heart is very bad, the genius and tafte, if there happen to be any pretenfions to them, will be found fhocking and unnatural. Nero would be nothing less than a poet; but his verses were what one may call most villainously bad. His taste of magnificence and luxury was horribly glaring, extravagant, and unnatural, to the laft degree. Caligula's tafte was fo outrageoufly wrong, that he detefted the works of the fweet Mantuan poet more paffionately than ever Maecenas adinired them; and if Virgil had unfortunately lived down o thofe times in which that monster ap peared, he would probably have been tortured to death for no other crime but that he wrote naturally, and like an honeft man. True Genius may be faid to confist of a perfect polish of foul, which receives and reflects the imagesthat fall upon it, without warping or diftortion. And this fine polish of foul is, I believe, conftantly attended with what philofophers call the moral truth. There are minds which receive objects truly, and feel the impreffions they ought naturally to make, in a very lively manner, but want the faculty of reflecting them; as there are people who, I fuppofe, feel all the charms of poetry without being poets themselves. SKETCH III. OF TASTE. UR notion of Tafte may be eafily understood by what has been faid upon the fubject of genius; for mere good Tafte is nothing else but genius without the power of execution. It must be born; and is to be improved chiefly by being accuftomed, and the earlier the better, to the moft exquifite objects of Tafte in it's various kinds. For the Tafte in writing and painting, and in every thing elfe, is infenfibly formed upon what we are accustomed to; as well as Taste in eating and drinking. One who from his youth has been used to drink nothing but heavy difinal Port, will not immediatelyacquire a relish for Claret or Burgundy. In the most stupid ages there is more good Taste than one would at first fight imagine. Even the present, abuse it with what contemptuous epithets you please, cannot be totally void of it. As long as there are noble, humane, and generous difpofitions, amongst mankind, there must be good Tafte. For in general, I do not say always, the Tafte will be in proportion to thofe moral qualities and that fenfibility of mind from which they take their rife. And while many, amongst the great and the learned, are allowed to have Tafte for no better reason than that it is their own opinion, it is often poffeffed by thofe who are not conicious of it. and dream as little of pretending to it as to a ftar and garter. An honeft farmer, or fheplied, who is acquainted with no language but what is fpoken in his own county, may have a much truer relish of the Engli writers than the most dogmatical pedant that ever erected himself into a commentator; and from his Gothic chair, with an ill-bred arrogance, dictated false criticism to the gaping multitude. But even those who are endued with good naturalTafte, often judge implicitly and by rote, without ever confulting their own Taite. Inftances of this paffive indolence, or rather this unconscious nefs of one's own faculties, appear every day; not only in the fine arts, but in cafes where the mere Tafe, according to the original meaning of the word, is alone concerned. For I am positive there are many thousands who, if they were to bring their own palate to a fevère examination, would difcover that they really find a more delicious flavour in mutton than in venifon, in flounder than in turbot, and yet prefer middling or bad venifon to the best mutton; that is, what is fcarceft and deareit, and confequently what is, from the folly of mankind, the most in vogue, to what is really the moft agreeable to their own private tafte. In matters of Taste, the public, for the most part, fuffers itself to be led by a few who perhaps are really no judes: but who, under the favour of fome advantages of title, place, or tortune, et up for judges, and are impli |