209 



balance those qualities, they then gain a 

 peculiarity of flavour, are eagerly sought 

 after by those who have acquired a relish 

 for them, but are less adapted to the gene- 

 ral palate. This corresponds exactly with 

 the picturesque; but if the stimulus be 

 encreased beyond that point, none but de- 

 praved and vitiated palates will endure, 

 what would be so justly termed deformity 

 in objects of sight*. The sense of smell- 

 ing has in this, as in all other respects, the 

 closest conformity to that of tasting. 



These are the chief arguments that have 

 occurred to me, for giving to the pictu- 

 resque a distinct character. I have had 



* The old maxim of llic schools, de gustibus non est 

 disputandum, is by many extended to all tastes, and 

 claimed as a sort of privilege not to have any of theirs 

 called in question. It is certainly veiy reasonable, that a 

 man should be allowed to iudulge his eye, as well as his 

 palate, in his own way ; hut if he happened to have a taste 

 for water-gruel without salt, he should not force it upon 

 his guests as the perfection of cookery; or burn their in- 

 sides, if, like the king of Prussia, he loved nothing but 

 what was spiced enough to tarn a living man into a 

 mummy. 



VOL. T.- I» 



