and obfervation, will nought avail, without the affiftance of Nature:

Illud tamen imprimis teftandum eft, nihil præcepta atque artes valere, nifi adjuvante natura.

Yet even though Nature has done her part, by implanting the feeds of Tafte, great pains must be taken, and great skill exerted, in railing them to a proper pitch of vegetation. The judicious Tutor muft gradually and tenderly unfold the mental faculties of the Youth committed to his charge. He muft cherish his delicate perception; ftore his mind with proper ideas; point out the different channels of obfervation; teach him to compare objects; to establish the limits of right and wrong, of truth and falfehood; to diftinguish beauty from tinfel, and grace from affectation; in a word, to strengthen and improve by culture, experience, and inftruction, thofe natural powers of feeling and fagacity, which constitute the faculty called Tafte, and enable the profeffor to enjoy the delights of the Belles Lettres.

We cannot agree in opinion with thofe, who imagine that Nature has been equally favourable to all men, in conferring upon them a fundamental capacity, which may be improved to all the refinement of Tafte and Criticifm. Every day's experience convinces us of the contrary. Of two Youths educated under the fame Preceptor, inftructed with the fame care, and cultivated with the fame affiduity, one fhall not only comprehend, but even anticipate the leffons of his Mafter, by dint of natural discernment; while the other toils in vain to imbibe the leaft tincture of inftruction. Such indeed is the diftinction between Genius and Stupidity, which every mán has an opportunity of feeing among his friends and acquaintance. Not that we ought too haftily to

decide upon the natural capacities of children, before we have maturely confidered the peculiarity of dif pofition, and the bias by which Genius may be ftrangely warped from the common path of education. A youth incapable of retaining one rule of grammar, or of acquiring the leaft knowledge of the claffics, may nevertheless make great progrefs in mathematics; nay he may have a ftrong genius for the mathematics, without being able to comprehend a demonftration of Euclid; because his mind conceives in a peculiar manner, and is fo intent upon contemplating the object in one particular point of view, that it cannot perceive it in any other. We have known an inftance of a boy, who, while his mafter complained that he had not capacity to comprehend the properties of a right-angled triangle, had actually, in private, by the power of his genius, formed a mathematical fyftem of his own, difcovered a series of curious theorems, and even applied his deductions to practical machines of furprising conftruction. Befides, in the education of youth, we ought to remember, that fome capacities are like the para precocia; they foon blow, and foon attain to all that degree of maturity which they are capable of acquiring; while on the other hand there are geniuses of flow growth, that are late in burfting the bud and long in ripening. Yet the firft fhall yield a faint bloffom and infipid fruit; whereas the produce of the other fhall be diftinguished and admired for its well-concocted juice and exquifite fla vour. We have known a boy of five years of age furprise every body by playing on the violin in fuch a manner as feemed to promife a prodigy in mufic. He had all the affiftance that art could afford; by the age of ten his genius was at the axun; yet after that period, notwithstanding the most intenfe appli cation, he never gave the leaft figns of improvement.

At fix he was admired as a miracle of mufic; at fix and twenty he was neglected as an ordinary fiddler. The celebrated Dean Swift was a remarkable inftance in the other extreme. He was long confidered as an incorrigible dunce, and did not obtain his degree at the Univerfity but ex fpeciali gratia: yet when his powers began to unfold, he fignalized himfelf by a very remarkable fuperiority of genius. When a youth therefore appears dull of apprehenfion, and feems to derive no advantage from ftudy and inftruction, the tutor muft exercise his fagacity in difcovering whether the foil be abfolutely barren, or fown with feed repugnant to its nature, or of such a quality as requires repeated culture and length of time to fet its juices in fermentation. Thefe obfervations however relate to Capacity in general, which we ought carefully to diftinguifh from Tafte. Capacity implies the power of retaining what is received; Tafte is the power of relishing or rejecting whatever is offered for the entertainment of the imagination. A man may have capacity to acquire what is called Learning and Philofophy; but he must have alfo fenfibility before he feels thofe emotions, with which Tafte receives the impreffions of beauty,

Natural Tafte is apt to be feduced and debauched by vicious precept and bad example. There is a dangerous tinfel in falfe Tafte, by which the unwary mind and young imagination are often fafcinated. Nothing has been fo often explained, and yet fo little underftood, as fimplicity in writing. Simplicity in this acceptation has a larger fignification than either the door of the Greeks, or the fimplex of the Latins; for it implies beauty. It is the donduv of Demetrius Phalerus, the fimplex munditiis of Horace, and expreffed by one word, naiveté in the French language. It is in fact no other than beautiful nature, without affectation or

extraneous

extraneous ornament. In ftatuary, it is the Venus of Medicis; in architecture, the Pantheon. It would be an endless talk to enumerate all the instances of this natural fimplicity, that occur in poetry and painting, among the antients and moderns. We shall only mention two examples of it, the beauty of which confifts in the pathetic.

Anaxagoras, the philofopher and preceptor of Pericles, being told that both his fons were dead, laid his hand upon his heart, and after a fhort pause confoled himself with a reflection couched in three. words, ήδειν θνητὲς γεγεννηκώς, “ I knew they were "I mortal.” The other inftance we felect from the tragedy of Macbeth. The gallant Macduff, being informed that his wife and children were murdered by order of the tyrant, pulls his hat over his eyes, and his internal agony burfts out into an exclamation of four words, the moft expreffive perhaps that ever were uttered: "He has no children." This is the energetic language of fimple Nature, which is now grown into difrepute. By the prefent mode of education we are forcibly warped from the bias of nature, and all fimplicity in manners is rejected. We are taught to difguife and diftort our fentiments, until the faculty of thinking is diverted into an unnatural channel; and we not only relinquifh and forget, but also become incapable of our original difpofitions. We are totally changed into creatures of art and affectation. Our perception is abused, and even our fenfes are perverted. Our minds lofe their native force and flavour. The imagination, weated by artificial fire, produces nought but vapid bloom. The genius, inftead of growing like a vigorous tree, extending its branches on every fide, and bearing delicious fruit, refembles a stunted yew, tortured into fome wretched form, projecting no fhade, difplaying no flower, diffufing no fragrance, yielding

yielding no fruit, and affording nothing but a barren conceit for the amusement of the idle fpectator.

Thus debauched from Nature, how can we relish her genuine productions? As well might a man diftinguifh objects through a prifm, that prefents nothing but a variety of colours to the eye; or a maid pining in the green fickness prefer a bifcuit to a cinder. It has been often alledged that the paffions can never be wholly depofited; and that by appealing to these, a good writer will always be able to force himself into the hearts of his readers: but even the ftrongeft paffions are weakened, nay fometimes totally extinguished, by mutual oppofition, diffipation, and acquired infenfibility. How often at the theatre is the tear of sympathy and the burst of laughter repreffed by a ridiculous fpecies of pride, refufing approbation to the author and actor, and renouncing fociety with the audience! This feeming infenfibility is not owing to any original defect. Nature has ftretched the ftring, though it has long ceafed to vibrate. It may have been difplaced and distracted by the violence of pride; it may have loft its tone through long difufe; or be fo twisted or overftrained, as to produce the most jarring difcords.

If fo little regard is paid to Nature when the knocks fa powerfully at the breaft, the must be altogether neglected and defpifed in her calmer mood of ferene tranquillity, when nothing appears to recommend her but fimplicity, propriety, and innocence. A perfon must have delicate feelings that can tafte the celebrated repartee in Terence: Homo fum; nibil humani à me alienum puto: "I am a man; therefore think I have an intereft in every thing that concerns humanity." A clear blue sky, fpangled with ftars, will prove an infipid object to eyes accuftomed to the glare of torches and tapers, gilding and glitter; eyes, that will turn with disguft from

the