Before the curious aim of mimic Art, Their largest choice; like spring's unfolded blooms May taste at will, from their selected spoils To work her dulcet food. Endow'd with all that Nature can bestow, His bosom, and with loveliest frenzy caught, Flit swift before him. From the womb of Earth, Pours out her births unknown. He marks the rising phantoms. With fixed gaze Now compares Their different forms; now blends them, now divides, Enlarges, and extenuates by turns; Opposes, ranges in fantastic bands, And infinitely varies. Hither now, Now thither fluctuates his inconstant aim, With endless choice perplexed. At length his plan Emerges. Colours mingle, features join; And lines converge the fainter parts retire; And every image on its neighbour smiles. LESSON 104. 280. 1. Render the following Extract into correct Prose, according to Directions No. 241. 2. Give an Analysis with Remarks on the leading topics and arguments, according to No. 242. 3. Observations on the Figures of Speech, Epithets, and instances of Poetical License, according to No. 242. 281. THE NATURE AND CONDUCT OF TASTE. Reveals the charms of Nature.—But though Heaven Nor yet will every soil with equal stores And gentlest beauty. Hence when lightning fires The nations tremble, Shakspeare looks abroad BOOK IV. TASTE AND DESCRIPTIONS. CHAPTER VIII. TASTE. LESSON 105. 282. Before proceeding to the rules and examples in Descriptive Subjects, it will be advantageous to furnish a brief and familiar exposition of the nature and leading principles of Taste. 283. TASTE is that discriminating power or faculty of the mind, by which we determine on the fitness or unfitness of anything intended to excite emotions, either of beauty, of grandeur, or of sublimity. This power is founded on the experience which emotions of beauty, or of grandeur, or sublimity produce; and he who exercises this power successfully is called a Man of Taste. 284. THE DIFFerent Kinds oF EMOTIONS.-The emotions excited by objects of beauty, are of a calm, gentle, and agreeable kind, and of much longer continuance than those excited by sublimity or grandeur. The following are instances: 1. When the sun goes down in the West, the surrounding clouds reflect, to our view, a rich variety of colours. We gaze on the splendid scene, and there is a pleasant emotion excited in our minds. 2. When examining Dr. Paley's reasoning in proof of the existence of the Deity, and observing how every part is brought to bear on the particular object in view, while one example after another gives additional strength to the argument, we admire the skill of the reasoner and the perfection of his work; and in view of this skill and this finished work, a grateful emotion arises in the mind. 285. The emotions excited by objects of grandeur are of a more elevating and ennobling kind, than those excited by objects of beauty. The following are examples: 1. The traveller, when he stands on the banks of some noble river, flowing on with the power of collected waters, and bearing on its bosom the wealth of the surrounding region, is conscious of emotions which, as they rise and swell within him, correspond to the scene on which he looks. 2. The following is Gray's description of the rising sun: — "I set out one morning before five o'clock, the moon shining through a dark and misty autumnal air, and got to the seacoast in time to be at the sun's levee. I saw the clouds and dark vapours open gradually to the right and left, rolling over one another in great smoky wreaths, and then slightly tinged with gold and blue, and all at once, a little line of insufferable brightness that, before I can write these five words, is grown to half an orb, and now a whole one, too glorious to be distinctly seen." This is a representation of a scene in Nature, and the writer, in looking on this scene, felt an emotion of grandeur. 286. The emotions excited by objects of sublimity are less permanent than those of grandeur, but more thrilling and exalting. The following are examples: |