odesty; their tender susceptibility
of the benevolent virtues, pity, compassion, &c. &c.

[Footnote A: Vide page 23.]

Taste, however, is as far removed from mere instinct as from mere
reason. I only mean to say, that the taste of the masculine character
is rather on the side of reason, or the understanding; that of the
feminine on the side of instinct, and, let me add, imagination. The
taste of the one and of the other seems to differ as justice does from
mercy, as modesty from virtue, as grace from sublimity, &c. &c. And,
as exterior feminine grace is the most perfect visible object of
taste, the highest degree of feminine excellence, externally and
internally united, must of course constitute woman, the most perfect
existing object of taste in the creation.

The cultivation of the social moral affections is the cultivation
of taste, and the domestic sphere is the true and almost only one
in which it can appear in its highest dignity. It is peculiarly
appropriated to feminine taste, and I may say it is _absolutely_
the only one in which it can appear in its true lustre. True taste,
particularly the feminine, is retired, calm, modest; it is the private
honour of the heart, and is, I imagine, incompatible with the love of
fame.

In the present state of society, taste seems to be equally excluded
from the highest and from the lowest sphere of life. The one seems
to be too much encumbered with artificial imaginary necessities; the
other too much encumbered with the real and natural necessities of
life, to attend to its cultivation. It is in the former that taste is
universally thought to reside, which is because the idea of taste
is inseparable from that of honour. It is that, indeed, in which the
general taste of the nation is exhibited. It is its _face_, as I may
say, which expresses the internal character of the heart.

In this sphere, namely, the most exalted station of mankind, what true
taste it does exhibit is placed in the strongest point of view; its
contrary principles are also the same, particularly so to those who
have been rightly educated at a distance from it; to such, the wrong
will instruct as much as the right; but sure I am, that it is not,
at this _period_, the proper sphere for the infant mind to expand and
improve in. The wrong will be too familiar to the mind to disgust;
and the right, which I imagine is chiefly confined to the _records_
of taste in the fine arts, will be too remote (wanting t