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

changes of climate, government, religion, and language, have
not been able to obscure his glory. Authority or prejudice may
give a temporary vogue to a bad poet or orator, but his
reputation will never be durable or general. When his
compositions are examined by posterity or by foreigners, the
enchantment is dissipated, and his faults appear in their true
colours. On the contrary, a real genius, the longer his works
endure, and the more wide they are spread, the more sincere is
the admiration which he meets with. Envy and jealousy have too
much place in a narrow circle; and even familiar acquaintance
with his person may diminish the applause due to his
performances. But when these obstructions are removed, the
beauties, which are naturally fitted to excite agreeable
sentiments, immediately display their energy and while the
world endures, they maintain their authority over the minds of
men.

It appears then, that, amidst all the variety and caprice of
taste, there are certain general principles of approbation or
blame, whose influence a careful eye may trace in all
operations of the mind. Some particular forms or qualities,
from the original structure of the internal fabric, are
calculated to please, and others to displease; and if they
fail of their effect in any particular instance, it is from
some apparent defect or imperfection in the organ. A man in a
fever would not insist on his palate as able to decide
concerning flavours; nor would one, affected with the
jaundice, pretend to give a verdict with regard to colours. In
each creature, there is a sound and a defective state; and the
former alone can be supposed to afford us a true standard of a
considerable uniformity of sentiment among men, we may thence
derive an idea of the perfect beauty; in like manner as the
appearance of objects in daylight, to the eye of a man in
health, is denominated their true and real colour, even while
colour is allowed to be merely a phantasm of the senses.

Many and frequent are the defects in the internal organs,
which prevent or weaken the influence of those general
principles, on which depends our sentiment of beauty or
deformity. Though some objects, by the structure of the mind,
be naturally calculated to give pleasure, it is not to be
expected, that in every individual the pleasure will be
equally felt. Particular incidents and situations occur, which
either throw a false light on the objects, or hinder the true
from conveying to the imagination the proper sentiment and
perception.

One obvious cause, why many feel not the proper sentiment of
beauty, is the want of that delicacy of imagination, which is
requisite to convey a sensibility of those finer emotions.