"Of the Standard of Taste" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

spite of these transgressions: They have possessed other
beauties, which were conformable to just criticism; and the
force of these beauties has been able to overpower censure,
and give the mind a satisfaction superior to the disgust
arising from the blemishes. ARIOSTO leases; but not by his
monstrous and improbable fictions, by his bizarre mixture of
the serious and comic styles, by the want of coherence in his
stories, or by the continual interruptions of his narration.
He charms by the force and clearness of his expression, by the
readiness and variety of his inventions, and by his natural
pictures of the passions, especially those of the gay and
amorous kind: And however his faults may diminish our
satisfaction, they are not able entirely to destroy it. Did
our pleasure really arise from those parts of his poem, which
we denominate faults, this would be no objection to criticism
in general: It would only be an objection to those particular
rules of criticism, which would establish such circumstances
to be faults, and would represent them as universally
blameable. If they are found to please, they cannot be faults;
let the pleasure, which they produce, be ever so unexpected
and unaccountable.

But though all the general rules of art are founded only on
experience and on the observation of the common sentiments of
human nature, we must not imagine, that, on every occasion the
feelings of men will be conformable to these rules. Those
finer emotions of the mind are of a very tender and delicate
nature, and require the concurrence of many favourable
circumstances to make them play with facility and exactness,
according to their general and established principles. The
least exterior hindrance to such small springs, or the least
internal disorder, disturbs their motion, and confounds the
operation of the whole machine. When we would make an
experiment of this nature, and would try the force of any
beauty or deformity, we must choose with care a proper time
and place, and bring the fancy to a suitable situation and
disposition. A perfect serenity of mind, a recollection of
thought, a due attention to the object; if any of these
circumstances be wanting, our experiment will be fallacious,
and we shall be unable to judge of the catholic and universal
beauty. The relation, which nature has placed between the form
and the sentiment will at least be more obscure; and it will
require greater accuracy to trace and discern it. We shall be
able to ascertain its influence not so much from the operation
of each particular beauty, as from the durable admiration,
which attends those works, that have survived all the caprices
of mode and fashion, all the mistakes of ignorance and envy.

The same HOMER, who pleased at ATHENS and ROME two thousand
years ago, is still admired at PARIS and at LONDON. All the