hat success these have been attended I now leave
to the judgment of philosophical readers, from which I can make no
appeal.

ADDITIONAL NOTES. XIII.

ANALYSIS OF TASTE.

Fond Fancy's eye recalls the form divine,
And Taste sits smiling upon Beauty's shrine.
CANTO III. l. 221.

The word Taste in its extensive application may express the pleasures
received by any of our senses, when excited into action by the
stimulus of external objects; as when odours stimulate the nostrils,
or flavours the palate; or when smoothness, or softness, are perceived
by the touch, or warmth by its adapted organ of sense. The word Taste
is also used to signify the pleasurable trains of ideas suggested by
language, as in the compositions of poetry and oratory. But the
pleasures, consequent to the exertions of our sense of vision only,
are designed here to be treated of, with occasional references to
those of the ear, when they elucidate each other.

When any of our organs of sense are excited into their due quantity of
action, a pleasurable sensation succeeds, as shown in Zoonomia, Vol.
I. Sect. IV. These are simply the pleasures attending perception, and
not those which are termed the pleasures of Taste; which consist of
additional pleasures arising from the peculiar forms or colours of
objects, or of their peculiar combinations or successions, or from
other agreeable trains of ideas previously associated with them.

There are four sources of pleasure attendant on the excitation of the
nerves of vision by light and colours, besides that simply of
perception above mentioned; the first is derived from a degree of
novelty of the forms, colours, numbers, combinations, or successions,
and visible objects. The second is derived from a degree of repetition
of their forms, colours, numbers, combinations, or successions. Where
these two circumstances exist united in certain quantities, and
compose the principal part of a landscape, it is termed picturesque by
modern writers. The third source of pleasure from the perception of
the visible world may be termed the melody of colours, which will be
shown to coincide with melody of sounds: this circumstance may also
accompany the picturesque, and will add to the pleasure it affords.
The fourth source of pleasure from the perception of visible objects
is derived from the previous association of other pleasurable trains
of ideas with certain forms, col