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currences of life; the right enjoyment of which forms the greateft part of our happiness. Great pleasures are much less frequent than great pains ; so that a fenfible temper must meet with fewer trials in the former way than in the latter. Not to mention, that men of fuch lively paffions are apt to be tranfported beyond all bounds of prudence and difcretion, and to take false steps in the conduct of life, which are often irretrievable.

THERE is a delicacy of tafte obfervable in fome men, which very much resembles this delicacy of pafion, and produces the fame fenfibility to beauty and deformity of every kind, as that does to profperity and adverfity, obligations and injuries. When you prefent a poem or a picture to a man poffefs'd of this talent, the delicacy of his feeling, makes him be touch'd very fenfibly with every part of it; nor are the masterly ftrokes perceiv'd with more exquifite relish and fatisfaction, than the ne. gligences or abfurdities with disgust and uneafinefs. A polite and judicious conversation affords him the highest entertainment; rudeness or impertinence is as great a punishment to him. In fhort, delicacy of tafte has the fame effect as delicacy of paffion: it enlarges the sphere both of our happiness and mifery, and makes us fenfible to pains as well as pleasures, which escape the rest of mankind.

BELIEVE, however, there is no one, who will not agree with me, that notwithstanding this refemblance,

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femblance, a delicacy of tafte is as much to be defir'd and cultivated as a delicacy of paffion is to be lamented, and to be remedy'd, if poffible. The good or ill accidents of life are very little at our difpofal; but we are pretty much mafters what books we shall read, what diverfions we shall par take of, and what company we shall keep. Philofophers have endeavour'd to render happiness entirely independent of every thing external. That is impoffible to be attain'd: But every wife man will endeavour to place his happiness on fuch objects as depend moft upon himfelf: and that is not to be attain'd fo much by any other means as by this delicacy of fentiment. When a man is poffefs'd of that talent, he is more happy by what pleases his tafte, than by what gratifies his appetites, and receives more enjoyment from a poem or a piece of reasoning than the most expenfive luxury can af ford.

How far delicacy of tafte, and that of paffion, are connected together in the original frame of the mind, it is hard to determine. To me there appears to be a very confiderable connexion betwixt them. For we may obferve that women, who have more delicate paffions than men, have alfo a more delicate tafte of the ornaments of life, of drefs, equipage, and the ordinary decencies of behaviour. Any excellency in these hits their taste much fooner than ours 9 and when you please their taste, you foon engage their affections.

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Bur whatever connection there may be originally betwixt these difpofitions, I am perfuaded, that nothing is fo proper to cure us of this delicacy of paffion, as the cultivating of that higher and more refined tafte, which enables us to judge of the characters of men, of compofitions of genius, and of the productions of the nobler arts. A greater or lefs relish of thofe obvious beauties which strike the fenfes, depends entirely upon the greater or lefs fenfibility of the temper: But, with regard to the fciences and liberal arts, a fine tafte is really nothing but strong sense, or at least depends fo much upon it, that they are infeparable. To judge aright of a compofition of genius, there are fo many views to be taken in, fo many circumftances to be compared, and fuch a knowledge of human nature requifite, that no man, who is not poffefs'd of the foundest judgment, will ever make a tolerable critic in fuch performances. And this is a new reafon for cultivating a relish in the liberal arts. Our judgment will ftrengthen by this exercife: We fhall form truer notions of life: Many things, which please or afflict others, will appear to us too frivolous to engage our attention: And we shall lofe by degrees that fenfibility and delicacy of paffion, which is fo incommodious.

BUT perhaps I have gone too far in faying, That a cultivated tafte for the polite arts extinguishes the paffions, and renders us indifferent to those objects which are fo fondly purfu'd by the rest of man. kind. When I reflect a little more, I find, that it

rather

rather improves our fenfibility for all the tender and agreeable paffions; at the fame time that it renders the mind incapable of the rougher and more boifterous emotions.

Ingenuas didiciffe fideliter artes,

Emollit mores, nec finit effe feros.

FOR this, I think there may be affigned two very natural reasons. In the first place, nothing is fo improving to the temper as the ftudy of the beauties, either of poetry, eloquence, mufick, or painting. They give a certain elegance of fentiment, which the rest of mankind are entire ftrangers to. The emotions they excite are foft and tender. They draw the mind off from the hurry of business and intereft; cherish reflection; difpofe to tranquillity; and produce an agreeable melancholy, which, of all difpofitions of the mind, is the best suited to love and friendship.

men.

IN the Second place, a delicacy of taste is favourable to love and friendship, by confining our choice to few people, and making us indifferent to the company and conversation of the greatest part of You will very feldom find, that mere men of the world, whatever ftrong sense they may be endow'd with, are very nice in diftinguishing of characters, or in marking those infenfible differences and gradations which make one man preferable to another. Any one, that has competent fenfe, is fufficient for their entertainment: They talk to him, of their pleasure and affairs, with the same frankness as they

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they would to any other; and finding many, who are fit fupply his place, they never feel any vacancy or want in his abfence. But to make use of the allufion of a famous * French author, the judgment may be compared to a clock or watch, where the moft ordinary machine is fufficient to tell the hours; but the most elaborate and artificial can only point out the minutes and feconds, and diftinguifh the fmalleft differences of time. One that has well digefted his knowledge both of books and men, has little enjoyment but in the company of a few select companions. He feels too fenfibly, how much all the reft of mankind fall fhort of the notions which he has entertain'd. And, his affections being thus confin'd within a narrow circle, no wonder he carries them further than if they were more general and undistinguifh'd. The gaiety and frolic of a bottle-companion improves with him into a solid friendship: And the ardours of a youthful appetite become an elegant paffion.

*Monf. Fontenelle, Pluralité des Mondes. Soir 6.

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