36 



OF TASTE. 



BOOK K 



are far inferior to such as are expressive of sentiment or charac- 

 ter. This will be easily understood if we apply the remark to 

 the productions of music or painting, to the physiognomy of the 

 human countenance; or to the moral actions of men. ■ Every 

 one knows the difference between that mixture of musical 

 sounds which pleases the ear, and that which touches the 

 heart — between a common-place countenance, and that which 

 indicates the prevailing faculties of the mind. A simply good 

 man is but a pleasing and useful being ; one remarkable for the 

 excess of some quality of mind is always interesting. All these 

 sentiments, emotions, or expressions, may be traced to the as- 

 sociation of ideas*. In architecture and scenery, such objects 

 or scenes as produce them are denominated characters. The 

 most powerful and universally distinguished emotions which 

 are produced upon the mind are by the characters of sublimity 

 and beauty; but there are other emotions which, if they are 

 not of a nature specifically different from these, yet the terms 

 applied to them are still deserving of attention in this work ; 

 and the characters themselves deserve study on account of their 

 agreeable or pleasant effects upon the imagination. Some of 

 the principal of these shall be noticed after the characters of 

 Sublimity and of Beauty. 



* See this beautifully explained by Hartley — " Observations on Man," Vol. I. 

 ch. I. and 2. 



