able affections, the forms of common civility, and the language of polite conversation, are remarkably expressive; a proof that good-breeding is founded in virtue and good sense, and that a kind and honest heart is the first requisite to an engaging deportment.

224. The essential parts of good-breeding are, to speak little and modestly of one's self, candidly of the absent, and affectionately to those who are present; to shew, by our looks and behaviour, that we respect our company, and that their happiness or convenience is the chief thing we have in view; to sympathise readily and tenderly in their joys and sorrows; not to obtrude ourselves upon the conversation, or seek to draw general notice; and, in all ordinary cases, when we differ in opinion from others, to do it with that respect for them, and that diffidence in ourselves, which become a fallible creature who wishes to be better informed. Such behaviour cannot be permanent or graceful, where it is hypocritical; and therefore they are greatly mistaken, who think, with Lord Chesterfield, that good-breeding consists in disguise, or that the malicious or the arrogant are at all susceptible of that accomplishment.

225. There are men, neither arrogant nor malicious, who sometimes, without bad intention, give offence, by saying or doing that which, if they had entered more readily into the views and circumstances of the company, their own good-nature

would have determined them to avoid : while others apprehend so quickly the situation and sentiments of every one present, that they give no offence to any, but great satisfaction to all. Habitual inadvertence, or perhaps a disposition to be more attentive to one's self than to one's company, may have produced the unpoliteness of the former class of men; which will probably be found to arise from one's not having been accustomed, in the early part of life, to the society of well-bred people. They, on the other hand, who have been much in the world, and have found it necessary, from the first, to accommodate themselves by obliging deportment to persons of various characters, acquire a great facility of conceiving what modes of conversation and behaviour will be most agreeable to those with whom they may happen to be associated. And thus it appears, that the sensibilities, here comprehended under the general name of sympathy, may, by education and habit, be greatly improved; or greatly weakened, if not destroyed, by inattention and want of practice.

226. There is a third class of men that one has sometimes the misfortune to meet with, who affect what they call a bluntness of manners, and value themselves on speaking their mind on all occasions whether people take it well or ill. Now it is right that people should speak their minds; but the mind that is fit to be spoken (if I may express myself so strangely) ought to be free from pride,

ostentation, and ill-nature; for from these hateful passions the bluntness here alluded to may generally be derived. Such people may have a sort of negative honesty; but of delicacy they are destitute. In their company one sweats with the apprehension of their committing some gross indecorum; for nobody knows what limits an indelicate mind may choose to prescribe to itself, From injury, punishable by law, they may abstain; but they often give such offence as amounts not to injury only, but to cruelty. The thief that picks. our pocket does not so much harm in society, nor occasion so much pain, as they may be charged with who shock the ear of piety with profaneness, or tear open the wounds of the bleeding heart by forcing upon it some painful recollection.

227. Sympathy with distress is thought so essential to human nature, that the want of it has been called inhumanity. Want of sympathy with another's happiness is not stigmatised by so hard a name; but it is impossible to esteem the man who takes no delight in the good of a fellow-creature ; we call him hard-hearted, selfish, unnatural; epithets expressive of high disapprobation. Habits of reflection, with some experience of misfortune, do greatly promote the amiable sensibility of which we now speak. Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco, says Dido, in Virgil. Inconsiderate men are seldom tender-hearted, and mere want of reflection leads children into acts of cruelty.

SECTION XI.

Of Taste.

228. THAT faculty, or those faculties, which fit us for receiving pleasure from what is beautiful elegant, or excellent, in the works of nature and art, has in modern times been called taste. He who derives no pleasure from such elegance, excellence, or beauty, is said to be a man of no taste: he who is gratified with that which is faulty in works of art, is a man of bad taste: and he who is pleased, or displeased, according to the degree of excellence or faultiness, is a man of good taste. This way of expressing critical sagacity by an allusion to the sensations received by the tongue and palate, though it be now found in most of the languages of Europe, is of no great antiquity. Petronius, indeed, uses Sapor in this sense: from which, as well as from many other circumstances, I suspect, that the trifling book which bears that name is partly modern.

229. Good taste implies several talents, or faculties. The first is a lively imagination. This qualifies a man for readily apprehending the meaning of an author or artist, tracing out the connec tion of his thoughts, and forming the same views of things which he had formed. Without this

talent, it is impossible to form a right judgment of an author's work. Delicacy of connection, and such contrivances in a fable or story as tend to produce surprise, are among the chief beauties of poetry; but these a man of dull imagination is apt to overlook, or not to understand. This liveliness of fancy must be corrected and regulated by the knowledge of nature both external and internal, that is, both of the visible universe, and of the human mind. For he who is unacquainted with nature can never be a man of taste; because he cannot know whether the productions of art resemble nature or not: and, if he know not this, he cannot receive from the imitative arts any real satisfaction.

230. The second thing necessary to good taste is, a clear and distinct apprehension of things. Some men think accurately on all subjects: the thoughts of other men are almost always indefinite and obscure. The former easily make you comprehend their meaning; the latter can never speak intelligibly except upon familiar topics. He who is master of his subject, says Horace, will not be at a loss either for expression or for method : whence we may learn, that accurate knowledge is the best, and indeed the only solid, foundation of true eloquence. Lord Chesterfield seems to think otherwise; but the eloquence he recommends is, like his favourite system of manners, not solid, but showy and superficial. It is plain, that they