BOOK I. 

 PART I. 



OF TASTE, CHIEFLY IN REGARD TO SCENERY AND 

 ARCHITECTURE. 



Standing upon an eminence, and looking around us on rural 

 scenery, we perceive a combination of a great variety of ob- 

 jects of different forms and colours, and of different degrees 

 of clearness or obscurity. Mankind in general denominate 

 the view grand, beautiful, fine, rude, barren, or disagreeable, 

 as it fills them with pleasurable emotions, or excites sensations 

 of disgust. The philosopher of taste inquires into the causes 

 of these opposite effects which are thus produced upon the 

 mind by different scenes ; and he has been able to arrive at this 

 general knowledge, that where the combination is discordant, 

 disgust, or other disagreeable sensations, are produced ; but 

 where it is harmonious, the effect is always pleasing, and often 

 fills the mind with the most exalted emotions of which our 

 nature is susceptible. A lively sensibility to these effects is 

 denominated Taste, or intellectual feeling. A knowledge of 



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