1827.] [ 25 ] 



TASTE. 



A THOUSAND persons have asked me " What is Taste ?" I answer 

 as far ('which perhaps is not far) as a definition can convey a meaning 

 Taste is the faculty of perceiving, and appreciating, the approach to, 

 or deviation from, perfection, in all things. 



This, power though doubtless nature has a hand in it, is chiefly the 

 gift of cultivation as a proof of which we find it possessed almost ex- 

 clusively by the higher classes of society ; and by hardly any in such ge- 

 neral perfection as by the English. It is displayed in their houses, grounds, 

 estates, animals of all sorts, equipage, servants, table, manners, and 

 innumerable other things too minute to mention, but all showing the 

 quality as much as the most important. For true taste is not only the 

 gold coin to be used on great occasions, but it is also the silver con- 

 tinually called into play, and spent upon the most trifling objects. It's 

 possessor will not merely be a judge of the merits of a painting, of a 

 singer, or of a statue, but will be equally a critic of the framing of 

 the one, the dress of the other, or the drapery of the third. 



And this it is which makes taste so invaluable a possession : of all 

 others, perhaps, the most important qualification for the true enjoyment 

 of existence ; for although it subjects its possessor to a variety of 

 annoyances from which the herd of mankind is free, yet it is the 

 property chiefly distinguishing the man from the brute, opening to him 

 pure and copious springs of unpalling enjoyment, and supplying him 

 'with a strong bias towards the agrcmens of life. 



The man of taste will find something to admire in almost every 

 corner of the globe he can never be long enmiye, for although he may 

 by accident be thrown into situations diametrically opposite to his 

 nature, and into the company of persons whose every look, word and 

 gesture must be grating to his feelings, yet he will commonly escape 

 the one and avoid the other, as it were instinctively, and, by contrast, 

 even gain something in the occasional collision. 



Taste is the discriminating talisman, enabling its owner to see at once 

 the real merits of persons and things, to ascertain at a glance the 

 true from the false, and to decide rightly on the value of individuals. 



Nothing escapes him who walks the world with his eyes touched by 

 this ointment they are open to all around him : to admire * or to 

 condemn to gaze with rapture, or to turn away with disgust, where 

 another shall pass and see nothing to excite the slightest emotion. The 

 fair creation of nature and the works of man afford him a wide field of 

 continual gratification. TJie brook, brawling over its bed of rocks or 

 pebbles half concealed by the over-hanging bushes that fringe its banks 

 or the great river flowing in unperturbed majesty through a wide 

 vale of peace and plenty, or forcing its passage through a lofty range 

 of opposing hills the gentle knoll, and- the towering mountain 

 the rocky dell and the awful precipice the young plantation and 

 the venerable forest are alike to him objects of interest and of 

 admiration. 



So, in the works of man, a foot-bridge, thrown across a torrent, may 

 be, in its way, as gratifying to the man of taste as the finest arch, 

 or most wonderful chain-bridge in the world ; and a cottage of the 

 humblest order may be so beautifully situated, so neatly kept, 



M.M. A^rc Scri.es. VOL. III. No. 13 E 



