Essays on Taste | Page 8

small-beer. Who steeps the calf's fat loin
in greasy sauce Will hardly loathe the praise that bastes an ass. Who

riots on Scotcht Collops scorns not any Insipid, fulsome, trashy
miscellany; 245 And who devours whate'er the cook can dish up, Will
for a classic consecrate each[A] bishop.
[Footnote A: See Felton's Classics.]
But I am sick of pen and ink; and you Will find this letter long enough.
Adieu!

OF GENIUS
There is a standard of right and wrong in the nature of things, of beauty
and deformity, both in the natural and moral world. And as different
minds happen to be more or less exquisite, the more or less sensibly do
they perceive the various degrees, of good and bad, and are the more or
less susceptible of being charmed with what is right or beautiful, and
disgusted with what is wrong or deformed. It is chiefly this sensibility
that constitutes genius; to which a sound head and a good heart are as
effectual as a lively imagination. And a man of true genius must
necessarily have as exquisite a feeling of the moral beauties, as of
whatever is great or beautiful in the works of nature; or masterly in the
arts which imitate nature, in poetry, painting, statuary, and music.
On the other side, where the heart is very bad, the genius and taste, if
there happen to be any pretensions to them, will be found shocking 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 last degree.
CALIGULA's taste was so outragiously wrong, that he detested the
works of the sweet MANTUAN poet more passionately than ever
MOECENAS admired them; and if VIRGIL had unfortunately lived
down to those times in which that monster appeared, he would
probably have been tortured to death for no other crime but that he
wrote naturally, and like an honest man.

True genius may be said to consist of a perfect polish of soul, which
receives and reflects the images that fall upon it, without warping or
distortion. And this fine polish of soul is, I believe, constantly attended
with what philosophers call the moral truth.
There are minds which receive objects truly, and feel the impressions
they ought naturally to make, in a very lively manner, but want the
faculty of reflecting them; as there are people who, I suppose, feel all
the charms of poetry without being poets themselves.

OF TASTE.
Our notion of taste may be easily understood by what has been said
upon the subject of genius; for mere good taste is nothing else but
genius without the power of execution.
It must be born; and is to be improved chiefly by being accustomed,
and the earlier the better, to the most exquisite objects of taste in its
various kinds. For the taste in writing and painting, and in every thing
else, is insensibly 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 dismal port, will not immediately acquire a
relish for claret or burgundy.
In the most stupid ages there is more good taste than one would at first
sight 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 dispositions amongst mankind, there must
be good taste. For in general, I do not say always, the taste will be in
proportion to those moral qualities and that sensibility of mind from
which they take their rise. And while many, amongst the great and the
learned, are allowed to have taste for no better reason than that it is
their own opinion, it is often possessed by those who are not conscious
of it, and dream as little of pretending to it as to a star and garter. An
honest farmer, or shepherd, who is acquainted with no language but
what is spoken in his own county, may have a much truer relish of the

English 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 natural taste, often judge
implicitly and by rote, without ever consulting their own taste.
Instances of this passive indolence, or rather this unconsciousness of
one's own faculties, appear every day; not only in the fine arts, but in
cases where the mere taste, according to the original meaning of the
word, is alone concerned. For I am positive there are many