46 OF TASTE. BOOK I. 



By constant observation, and the practice of viewing objects 

 of taste, a, person may acquire a delicate and just feeling, though 

 he may not be able accurately to describe the causes of plea- 

 sure or dislike being excited by particular objects. Thus in 

 music, many have what is called a good ear, or a delicate and 

 accurate perception of melody and harmony or discord, who 

 yet may be quite unable to compose a tune, or to explain the 

 principles of harmonious and melodious combinations of sounds. 

 A similar kind of perception takes place in painting; where 

 the artist often produces beauty entirely from feeling, without 

 being able either to reason himself into the production of a 

 good landscape ; or to analyze a picture, and say precisely why 

 this or that part produces more pleasure than other forms or 

 colours which might have been substituted in their place. The 

 constant practice of seeing and comparing the various beauties 

 of nature and art is of the utmost importance for such as would 

 aspire to a critical knowledge. Nature is the source of every 

 excellence ; in her productions the student ought ever to exer- 

 cise himself; not merely in relation to visible objects, but to 

 general laws, harmonies, and moral relations, which do not ap- 

 pear to the eye which gazes only on the surface. This way of 

 studying nature, not in opposition to, but in conjunction with 

 those arts which relate to visible objects, has a tendency to pro- 

 duce a" just judgment both in taste and morals. Without tak- 

 ing this general view of nature and mankind, we can only study 



