ON TASTR, GENIUSi 



covers a powerful genius in this particular line, and, as dispkyirig the ef^ 

 feet of muscular action, may afford to the young painter a useful study ; 

 but the ideas are tooludicrousandvioientfor real beauty, and have, hence, 

 no pretensions to pure taste. 



Among the whims and follies which have successively risen into notice 

 in our own country, there appears, at one time, among the lower ranks of 

 flfe, to have been an odd and singular fashion for grinning. The third 

 volume of the Spectator contains a paper that gives a very humorous 

 account of this elegant rage ; and informs us that grinning clubs were es- 

 tablished in different parts of the country, grinning matches proposed, and 

 grinning prizes adjudged to the winner? Among the competitors in this 

 new Olympic game, there were some who seem to have been endo^ved 

 with a peculiar genius for the art ; and in one instance the prize fell upon 

 a cobbler, who discovered so much accomplishment and excited so much 

 applause, that a hard-hearted young woman whom he had in vain wooed 

 for five years before, immediately gave him her hand^ and was married to 

 him the week following. Now here, as in the Dutch paintings I have just 

 noticed, whatever may have been the genius displayed, every one, I ap- 

 prehend, will- admit that it was genius without taste. 



Let us, however, ascend lo nobler regions. We occasionally meet with 

 particular instances of deficient taste in persons of the most elevated genius, 

 and whose general taste is acknowledged by every one to be sufficiently 

 correct. As one instance, I may perhaps mention that Reubens, in his 

 very excellent picture of Daniel in the lion's den, has given a human ex- 

 pression to the faces of the oavage beasts. His intention is clear; it 

 is that of representing them as endowed with human feeling on the oc- 

 casion. The conception unquestionably implies genius, but its taste will 

 not be so readily allowed. We meet with a similar error in the battle of 

 Constantino, by Giulio Romano, where the face of one of the horses is, 

 for the same reason, animated with a human character^ expressive of 

 doubtful thought and suspicion ; while the ears and hair of the forehead, 

 for the sake of greater fierceness, are drawn from the features of the bull. 

 Now, in centaurs, chimseras, and other ideal animals^ this intermixture of 

 attributes is readily allowable, for here the imagination may sport without 

 restraint; but it is a law of genuine taste, that natural objects should have 

 their natural characters, their proper features and expression ; or, in other 

 words, that the principle of association adhered to by nature should be 

 adhered to by those who copy her. 



Our best and most celebrated poets furnish us occasionally with similar 

 instances of genius unaccompanied by taste. Homer himself is not alto- 

 gether free from this imputation. Let me first set before you one of his 

 most exquisite pictures, in which taste and genius equally combine. The 

 passage I refer to is his delineation, in the eighth book of the Iliad, of a 

 night scene before Troy. Mr. Pope's is an excellent version, but I take 

 Mr. Gowper's as equally excellent and more true to the original 



As when around the clear bright moon, the stars 

 Shine in full splendour, and the winds are hush'd, 

 The groves, the mountain-tops, the headland heights 

 Stand all apparent, not a vapour streaks 

 The boundless blue, but ether open'd wide 

 All glitters, and the shepherd's heart is cheer'd : 

 So numerous seem'd those fires between the stream 

 Of Xanthus blazing, and the fleet of Greece, 

 In prospect all of Troy. 



