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moral condud mufl; fail. — Is it, that difproportion, irregularity, 

 and extravagance, have in tbem fomewhat ftriking, fomething fo 

 different from the ufual pradice of men, in their works of art and 

 genius, that they fill the croud, who are apt to hold cheap what 

 they perpetually fee, with an idea of novelty and greatnefs ? — 

 Thus, we fee the Cbinefe and Gothic architeflure, have their ad- 

 mirers ; and we find many modern ftrudures built in imitation of 

 the Chinefe and Gothic ftyle. — Are fanguinary fpedacles and tales of 

 horror calculated, to obtain currency, and popularity, by exciting 

 a powerful intereft, on the fame principle, that people throng to 

 e'xecutions ? — Or, is it, that the feeds of revolutionary principles, 

 and the germs of innovation and anarchy, which are plentifully 

 fprinkled, through the German produdlions, feafon them with an 

 high relifh, and recommend them to the palates of multitudes, 

 who in thofe times are deeply, though fecretly, lindured with the 

 maxims of the new philofophy, and love to find the image of their 

 own thought refieded back on them from the ftage ? — Some obfer- 

 vations on the prefent ftate of fociety and manners, may lead us 

 to a folution of the problem. 



Excessive luxury, and immoderate refinement, commonly de- 

 generate into a voluptuous and fenfual difpofition ; which finds 

 that the intelledual and purer pleafures require too much exer- 

 tion, and attention ; and produces a fort of fupercilious apathy, 

 the mortal foe of literature and genius. The public tafte becomes 



a fort 



