ety. So that a great portion of original
genius was necessary to embolden a man to write faithfully to Nature
upon any affecting subject if it belonged to a class of composition in
which Pope had furnished examples.

I am anxious not to be misunderstood. It has already been stated that in
this species of composition above every other, our sensations and
judgments depend upon our opinion or feeling of the Author's state of
mind. Literature is here so far identified with morals, the quality of
the act so far determined by our notion of the aim and purpose of the
agent, that nothing can please us, however well executed in its kind, if
we are persuaded that the primary virtues of sincerity, earnestness and
a moral interest in the main object are wanting. Insensibility here
shocks us, and still more so if manifested by a Writer going wholly out
of his way in search of supposed beauties, which if he were truly moved
he could set no value upon, could not even think of. We are struck in
this case not merely with a sense of disproportion and unfitness, but we
cannot refrain from attributing no small part of his intellectual to a
moral demerit. And here the difficulties of the question begin, namely
in ascertaining what errors in the choice of or the mode of expressing
the thoughts, most surely indicate the want of that which is most
indispensible. Bad taste, whatever shape it may put on, is injurious to
the heart and the understanding. If a man attaches much interest to the
faculty of taste as it exists in himself and employs much time in those
studies of which this faculty (I use the word taste in its comprehensive
though most unjustifiable sense) is reckoned the arbiter, certain it is
his moral notions and dispositions must either be purified and
strengthened or corrupted and impaired. How can it be otherwise, when
his ability to enter into the spirit of works in literature must depend
upon his feelings, his imagination and his understanding, that is upon
his recipient, upon his creative or active and upon his judging powers,
and upon the accuracy and compass of his knowledge, in fine upon all
that makes up the moral and intellectual man. What is true of
individuals is equally true of nations. Nevertheless a man called to a
task in which he is not practised, may have his expression thoroughly
defiled and clogged by the style prevalent in his age, yet still,
through the force of circumstances that have roused him, his under
fee