13 



followed with the greatest avidity; while the most digni- 

 fied and truly interesting objects are neglected and con- 

 temned, or even reprobated and vilified. AVhere luxury 

 and corruption of morals universally prevail, frivolous and 

 contemptible amusements, and base and sensual o-ratifica- 

 tions, Avill take place of refined pursuits, and elegant plea- 

 sures. Horace complains, that, even in his time, in the 

 Augustan age, this began to be the case among the Ro- 

 man knights, the most fashionable part of a Roman au- 

 dience: *migravit jam ab aure voluptas, ad mcertos oculos 

 tt gaudia vana. Thus, impure pleasures, and frivolous 

 amusements, particulaly gaming, will supersede the refin- 

 ed, the intellectual enjoyments, which the Jine arts afford. 

 They will do more: by depraving the general mind, and 

 vitiating the public taste, they will introduce a corrupt 

 and despicable style, into all the productions of the Jine 

 arts. If these arts are still called for, by the vanity* the 

 luxury, and prodigality of the age, tliey will become ve- 

 nal and sordid; they will endeavour to conform to the 

 miserable taste of the ignorant, and the profligate indi- 

 viduals, who pay and patronize them. Nauseous flat- 

 tery, trivial conceits, false wit, tumid and inflated elo- 

 quence, extravagant and ridiculous attitudes, Avill become 

 their characteristic marks. The poet, the painter, the 

 sculptor, and the musician, will be bribed, to prostitute 

 their arts; to stoop to the most degrading tasks; to be- 

 come 



* Epist. I. Lib. II. ad Augustum.. 



