upper hand, he then betrays the liberty of his own foul.

As nature has framed the feveral fpecies of beings as it were in a chain, fo man seems to be placed as the • middle link between angels and brutes: Hence he participates both of flesh and spirit by an admirable tie, which in him occafions perpetual war of paffions; and as a man inclines to the angelic or brute part of his conftitution, he is then denominated good or bad, • virtuous, or wicked; if love, mercy, and good nature prevail, they speak him of the angel; if hatred, cruelty, and envy predominate, they declare his -kindred to the brute. Hence it was that fome of the ancients imagined, that as men in this life inclined more to the angel or the brute, fo after their ⚫ death they should tranfmigrate into the one or the • other; and it would be no unpleasant notion to con⚫fider the feveral fpecies of brutes, into which we may imagine that tyrants, mifers, the proud, malicious, and ill-natured might be changed.

As a confequence of this original, all paffions are in all men, but appear not in all; conftitution, edu⚫cation, custom of the country, reafon, and the like caufes, may improve or abate the ftrength of them, but ftill the feeds remain, which are ever ready to fprout forth upon the leaft encouragement. I have heard a story of a good religious man, who, having • been bred with the milk of a goat, was very modeft in public by a careful reflexion he made on his actions, but he frequently had an hour in fecret, wherein he had his frisks and capers; and if we had an opportunity of examining the retirement of the ftrict• eft philofophers, no doubt but we fhould find perpetual returns of thofe paffions they fo artfully conceal from the public. I remember Machiavel observes, • that every state fhould entertain a perpetual jealousy of its neighbours, that fo it should never be unprovided when an emergency happens; in like manner fhould the reafon be perpetually on its guard against the paffions, and never fuffer them to carry on any defign that may be deftructive of its fecurity; yet at the fame time it must be careful, that it don't fo far break

⚫ their

their ftrength as to render them contemptible, and confequently itself unguarded.

The understanding being of itself too flow and lazy to exert itself into action, it is neceffary it fhould be put in motion by the gentle gales of the paffions, which may preferve it from ftagnating and corruption; for they are neceffary to the health of the mind, as the circulation of the animal fpirits is to the health of the body; they keep it in life, and ftrength, and vigour; nor is it poffible for the mind to perform its offices without their affiftance: These ⚫motions are given us with our being; they are little fpirits that are born and die with us; to fome they are mild, eafy and gentle, to others wayward and unruly, yet never too strong for the reins of reafon and the guidance of judgment.

We may generally obferve a pretty nice proportion between the strength of reason and paffion; the greateft genius's have commonly the strongest affections, as, on the other hand, the weaker understandings have generally the weaker paffions; and it is fit the fury of the courfers fhould not be too great for the ftrength of the charioteer. Young men whofe paffions are not a little unruly, give fmall hopes of their ever being confiderable; the fire of youth will of courfe abate, and is a fault, if it be a fault, that mends every day; but furely, unless a man has fire in youth, he can hardly have warmth in old age. We must therefore be very cautious, left while we think to regulate the paffions, we should quite extinguish them, which is putting out the light of the foul; for to be without paffion, or to ⚫ be hurried away with it, makes a man equally blind. The extraordinary severity used in most of our fchools has this fatal effect, it breaks the fpring of the mind, ⚫ and moft certainly deftroys more good genius's than it can poffibly improve. And furely 'tis a mighty mistake that the paffions fhould be fo intirely fubdued; for little irregularities are fometimes not only to be born with but to be cultivated too, fince they are frequently at⚫tended with the greatest perfections. All great genius's have faults mix'd with their virtues, and resemble the flaming bufh which has thorns amongst lights.

Since

Since therefore the paffions are the principles of • human actions, we must endeavour to manage them fo as to retain their vigour, yet keep them under ftrict command; we must govern them rather like free fubjects than flaves, left, while we intend to make ⚫ them obedient, they become abject, and unfit for those great purposes to which they were defigned. For my part I must confefs I could never have any regard to that fect of philofophers, who fo much infifted upon " an abfolute indifference and vacancy from all paffion; for it feems to me a thing very inconfiftent, for a man to diveft himself of humanity, in order to acquire tranquillity of mind; and to eradicate the very principles of action, because it is poffible they may pro • duce ill effects.

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N° 409

Thursday, June 19.

Mufeo contingere cun&ta lepore.

Lucr. lib. 1. v. 933.

To grace each fubject with enliv'ning wit.

G

RATIAN very often recommends the fine tafie, as the utmoft perfection of an accomplished man.

As this word arifes very often in converfation, I fhall endeavour to give fome account of it, and to lay down rules how we may know whether we are poffelfed of it, and how we may acquire that fine talle of writing, which is fo much talked of among the polite world.

Moft languages make ufe of this metaphor, to exprefs that faculty of the mind, which diftinguishes all the most concealed faults and niceft perfections in writing. We may be fure this metaphor would not have been fo general in all tongues, had there not been a very

great

great conformity between that mental taste, which is the fubject of this paper, and that fenfitive tafte, which gives us a relish of every different flavour that affects the palate. Accordingly we find, there are as many degrees of refinement in the intellectual faculty, as in the fenfe, which is marked out by this common denomination.

I knew a perfon who poffeffed the one in fo great a perfection, that after having tafted ten different kinds of tea he would diftinguish, without fecing the colour of it, the particular fort which was offered him; and not only fo, but any two forts of them that were mixt together in an equal proportion; nay, he has carried the experiment fo far, as upon tafting the compofition of three different forts, to name the parcels from whence the three several ingredients were taken. A man of a fine taste in writing will difcern, after the fame manner, not only the general beauties and imperfections of an author, but difcover the feveral ways of thinking. and expreffing himself, which diverfify him from all other authors, with the feveral foreign infufions of thought and language, and the particular authors from whom they were borrowed.

After having thus far explained what is generally meant by a fine tafte in writing, and fhewn the propriety of the metaphor which is used on this occafion, I think I may define it to be that faculty of the foul, which difcerns the beauties of an author with pleasure, and the imperfections with diflike. If a man would know whether he is poffeffed of this faculty, I would have him read over the celebrated works of antiquity, which have ftood the teft of fo many different ages and countries, or those works among the moderns which have the fanction of the politer part of our contemporaries. If upon the perufal of fuch writings he does not find himfelf delighted in an extraordinary manner, or if, upon reading the admired paffages in fuch authors, he finds a coldness and indifference in his thoughts, he ought to conclude, not (as is too ufual among taftclefs readers) that the author wants thofe perfections which have been admired in him, but that he himself wants the faculty of difcovering them.

C 4.

He

No 409 He should, in the fecond place, be very careful to obferve, whether he tastes the diftinguishing perfections, or, if I may be allowed to call them fo, the specific qualities of the author which he perufes; whether he is particularly pleased with Livy, for his manner of telling a ftory, with Salluft for entering into those internal principles of action which arife from the characters and manners of the perfons he defcribes, or with Tacitus for his difplaying thofe outward motives of fafety and intereft, which gave birth to the whole feries of transactions which he relates.

He may likewife confider, how differently he is af fected by the fame thought, which prefents itself in a great writer, from what he is when he finds it delivered by a perfon of an ordinary genius. For there is as much difference in apprehending a thought clothed in Cicero's language, and that of a common author, as in feeing an object by the light of a taper, or by the light of the fun.

It is very difficult to lay down rules for the acquirement of fuch a tafte as that I am here speaking of. The faculty mutt in fome degree be born with us, and it very often happens, that thofe who have other qualities in perfection are wholly void of this. One of the most eminent mathematicians of the age has affured me, that the greatest pleasure he took in reading Virgil, was in examining Aneas his voyage by the map; as I question not but many a modern compiler of hiftory would be delighted with little more in that divine author than the bare matters of fact.

But notwithstanding this faculty muft in fome meafure be born with us, there are feveral methods for cultivating and improving it, and without which it will be very uncertain, and of little ufe to the perfon that poffeffes it. The most natural method for this purpose is to be converfant among the writings of the most polite authors. A man who has any relifh for fine writing, either difcovers new beauties, or receives ftronger impreffions from the mafterly ftrokes of a great author every time he perufes him; befides that he naturally wears himself into the fame manner of speaking and thinking.

Converfation