they may be said to relate
to each other, in the perception of an object of taste, as a luminous
polish does to the substance from whence it proceeds: the substance
can exist without its polish, but the polish cannot exist without its
substance. The perception of taste seems to me, if I may so express
myself, to be illusive, but not erroneous; in a word, to exist in our
idea of true honour, i.e. in the polish, lustre, or ornament, of true
virtue.

As the universal idea or sentiment of taste is honour, so the
universal object of its perception is ornament, from the object, whose
excellence we contemplate as an ornament or honour to human nature, to
every object which in the slightest degree indicates the influence
of that excellence. Take away the idea of that influence in the moral
sphere, and taste is annihilated; and, in the natural sphere, take
away the idea of divine influence, and taste cannot exist. Every
sentiment of taste, as I observed before, ultimately relates to the
one or to the other of these principles; indeed, strictly speaking, as
the moral relates to the divine, it may be said ultimately to do the
same.

In the progress of civilization, the polishing principle, which I call
taste, is chiefly found in the highest sphere of life, highest both
for internal and external advantages, wealth accelerates the last
degree of cultivation, by giving efficacy to the principles of true
honour; but it also accelerates its corruption, by giving efficacy
to the principles of false honour, by which the true loses its
distinction, becomes less and less apparent, nay, by degrees, less and
less real. Wealth becoming the object of honour, every principle of
true taste must be reversed. Hence the _dire polish_ of the obdurate
heart, repelling the force of nature. Hence avarice and profusion,
dissipation, luxurious banqueting, &c. supersede the love of oeconomy,
domestic comfort, the sweet reciprocation of the natural affections,
&c. &c. Hence the greatest evils of society: the sorrows of the
virtuous poor, _the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes_,
in a word, the general corruption of morals, and, of course, of true
taste!

The vulgar, who are strangers to the internal principles of honour,
always annex their ideas of taste to the external appearances of the
highest rank of life, which being easily acquired, particularly that
of dress, the prevalency of modes and fashions, however absurd,
is universally ado