PART I. OF TASTE. 45 



particular, many of the superior beauties of nature which escape 

 common observation will fill improved taste with a rapture and 

 enthusiastic delight to which most men are entire strangers. But 

 a man of improved taste still receives considerable pleasure from 

 viewing less perfect productions ; from the exercise of his judg- 

 ment in determining what is right and wrong, deficient or super- 

 fluous ; or in works of art he may be gratified by perceiving 

 the dawnings of future genius. 



An ardent passion for objects of taste, like keen feelings or 

 strong passions in life, are alike dangerous when not joined with 

 a sound judgment. In the arts, taste without judgment pro- 

 duces the most extravagant productions, under the fancied 

 impulse of genius: ardent passions, ungoverned by judgment, 

 hurry us into the most improper and dangerous actions, under 

 the guise of love, honour, or even virtue. These evils however,, 

 though like many others they work their own remedy, often 

 have effects which a long perseverance in a contrary practice 

 can scarcely remove. Nothing contributes more both to the 

 moral and political government of the passions, than the rigid 

 discipline required by the principles of good taste, which ase 

 always in unison with those of good morality ; and without the 

 latter, the former cannot exist*. 



* " A woman without virtue is never beautiful," say the Italians with much 

 truth, 



