he preparatory
love of nature and virtue) to please.

It is not, I imagine, from objects of excellence in the arts, that
the mind receives the first impressions of taste, though from them
the impressions, we have already received, may be strengthened and
improved. The truths they exhibit awaken the recollection of what
has pleased us in nature; and we exult in the confirmation of our
judgement and taste on finding those objects represented, by genius,
in their best and fairest light. Of course, the excellence we perceive
in the fine arts, which is always relative to moral excellence, must
tend to the improvement of taste.[A]

[Footnote A: L'esprit de l'homme est naturellement plein d'un nombre
infini d'idees confuses du vrai, que souvent il n'entrevoit qu'a demi;
et rien ne lui est plus agreable, que lorsqu'on lui offre quelqu'une
de ces idees bien eclaircie et mise dans un beau jour. BOILEAU,
Preface.]

But, though the arts are thus beneficial to the growing principles
of taste, reflecting a few individuals, it is well known that their
establishment in every nation has had a contrary effect on the
community in general; for, in proportion to the encouragement given
them, as that encouragement immediately promotes two of the most
pernicious principles that can affect the human heart, the most
destructive of moral virtue, namely, the love of fame and the love of
riches, the general diffusion of corruption must ensue, and of course
the extinction of the natural principles of taste, or relish of the
human soul of what is truly beautiful, truly honourable, truly good.

To conclude. I will not presume to say, that a man without taste is
without virtue; but I think I may venture to say, that it is only
as he can have virtue without loving virtue, that he can have virtue
without having taste; the definition of taste being, according to my
apprehension of its perception, the _love_ of virtue. And, as that
love springs from, and tends to, the source of all virtue, all good,
may I not add, that it is but as a man can be religious without
devotion, that a man can be religious without taste? the sentiment
of devotion seeming to be, an aggregation of our most virtuous, most
refined, conscious, energies of soul, in the awful vertical point of
sublimity.

'From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,
Path, motive, guide, original, and end!'

JOHNSON.

THE END.

William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: Un