MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 



403 



excellence, or Petrarch's sonnets; 

 and they wonder, rationally enough, 

 how Englishmen become endowed 

 with such fine discernment of matters 

 which depend exceedingly upon 

 habits of life, on customs peculiar to 

 every country : they do not think it 

 necessary to admire Pope or Shake- 

 speare as a proof of their taste, and 

 they are in the right. Pope gives 

 them no real pleasure as a poet ; 

 and they think, truly enough that, 

 as a moralist, Seneca gives better 

 precepts. Shakespeare is inteUigi- 

 ble to them only in the parts they 

 like least. A man wich bad eyes 

 looking at a picture of Rembrandt, 

 is on the footing of a foreigner read- 

 ing our historical plays — Whatever 

 is brightly illuminated, says he, 

 seems coarse, and the rest I cannot 

 discern. A British reader, were he 

 equally honest, would confess that 

 Dante he does not understand, and 

 that Petrarch gives back to his mind 

 no image of his own, but one as ro- 

 mantic and grotesque as that of 

 Amadis de Gaul ; where the love is 

 no more unnatural (as he would call 

 it), and the adventures more di* 

 verting. A Tuscan mean time is en- 

 tertained by the one, and enchant- 

 ed by the other, only because he 

 understands and feels both, as we 

 understand the Dunciad and feel the 

 invocation — Oh for a muse of fire ! 

 &c. even into our very bonts.' 



Consult the genius of the place in all. 



It is folly to fix any other criterion 

 of true taste; for although many 

 people from many places may agree 

 in praise of one poet, one paiuter, 

 one style in music, dress, or garden- 

 ing — it is still some accideiit directs 

 the congress, because, on a strict 

 scrutiny, you will find all their opi- 



nions instinctively different. Na* 

 tional character admits modification 

 doubtless, yet is it never altered 

 fundamentally ; you see the indelible 

 impression made by the hand of na- 

 ture at the beginning scarce ever 

 totally effaced. Laws may unite 

 kingdoms in one common interest. 



But mind^ will still look back to their 

 owa choice ; 



nor can adventitious circumstances 

 destroy the germ of difference. 

 This germ is most visible in taste, I 

 think. A Scot or Frenchman will 

 no moretliink hkethe Englishman, 

 within thirty miles of whom he was 

 bom and bred, than wHll the salt of" 

 one plant be mistaken for that of 

 another growing close to it, even 

 after they have both been tortured 

 into various forms and shapes by 

 the operations of chymistry. 



Even from the tomb the voice of nature 



cries, 

 Even in our ashes live their wonted fires. 



The native of a warm climate de- 

 lights to loiter in a vast but trim 

 garden, where a full but gentle 

 river glides slowly down a broad 

 green slope, into a dark oblivious 

 lake at the bottom, almost without 

 appearing to disturb it ; while such 

 a tranquil scene soothe* the suspend- 

 ed faculties of reason, and induces a 

 disposition towards cahning all rest- 

 less thoughts from the consideration 

 of Time's eternal flux — and the 

 sweet verse 



Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum 



is the only poetry capable of deep- 

 ening the impression of such a land- 

 scape. 



Meantime Mr. Gilpin would soon 

 tell us, and truly too, that thecha- 



D d 2 ractcrislic 



