CONTENTS. IV. Of Delight and Pleasure, as opposed to each other VI. Of the Passions which belong to Self-Preservation VIII. Of the Passions which belong to Society IX. The Final Cause of the Difference between the Passions PART I. I. Of the Passion caused by the Sublime IV. Of the Difference between Clearness and Obscurity [IV.] The Same Subject continued II. Proportion not the Cause of Beauty in Vegetables 132 IX. Perfection not the Cause of Beauty X. How far the Idea of Beauty may be applied to the XI. How far the Idea of Beauty may be applied to Virtue 190 I. Of the Efficient Cause of the Sublime and Beautiful. V. How the Sublime is produced VI. How Pain can be a Cause of Delight II. The Common Effect of Poetry, not by raising Ideas III. General Words before Ideas INTRODUCTION. ON TASTE. ΟΝ Na superficial view we may seem to differ very widely from each other in our reasonings, and no less in our pleasures: but, notwithstanding this difference, which I think to be rather apparent than real, it is probable that the standard both of reason and taste is the same in all human creatures. For if there were not some principles of judgment as well as of sentiment common to all mankind, no hold could possibly be taken either on their reason or their passions, sufficient to maintain the ordinary correspondence of life. It appears, indeed, to be generally acknowledged, that with regard to truth and falsehood there is something fixed. We find people in their disputes continually appealing to certain tests and standards, which are allowed on all sides, and are supposed to be established in our common nature. But there is not the same obvious concurrence in any uniform or settled principles which relate to taste. It is even commonly supposed that this delicate and aerial faculty, which seems too volatile to endure even the chains of a definition, cannot be properly tried by any test, nor regulated by any standard. There is so continual a call for the exercise of the reasoning faculty; and it is so much strengthened by perpetual contention, that certain |
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