ons of
those who have determined the national standard of taste. In many
instances taste is governed by arbitrary and variable laws; the
fashions of dress, of decoration, of manner, change from day to day;
therefore no exclusive prejudices should confine your pupil's
understanding. Let him know, as far as we know them, the general
principles which govern mankind in their admiration of the sublime and
beautiful; but at the same time give him that enlarged toleration of
mind, which comprehends the possibility of a taste different from our
own. Show him, and you need not go further than the Indian skreen, or
the Chinese paper in your drawing room, for the illustration, that
the sublime and beautiful vary at Pekin, at London, on Westminster
bridge, and on the banks of the Ganges. Let your young pupil look over
a collection of gems or of ancient medals; it is necessary that his
eye should be early accustomed to Grecian beauty, and to all the
classic forms of grace. But do not suffer him to become a bigot,
though he may be an enthusiast in his admiration of the antique. Short
lessons upon this subject may be conveyed in a few words. If a child
sees you look at the bottom of a print for the name of the artist,
before you will venture to pronounce upon its merits, he will follow
your example, and he will judge by the authority of others, and not by
his own taste. If he hears you ask, who wrote this poem? Who built
this palace? Is this a genuine antique? he will ask the same questions
before he ventures to be pleased. If he hears you pronounce with
emphasis, that such a thing comes from Italy, and therefore must be in
good taste, he will take the same compendious method of decision upon
the first convenient occasion.

He will not trouble himself to examine why utility pleases, nor will
he analyze his taste, or discover why one proportion or one design
pleases him better than another; he will, if by example you teach him
prejudice, content himself with repeating the words, proportion,
antique, picturesque, &c. without annexing any precise ideas to these
words.

Parents, who have not turned their attention to metaphysics, may,
perhaps, apprehend, that they have something very abstruse or
intricate to learn, before they can instruct their pupils in the
principles of taste: but these principles are simple, and two or three
entertaining books, of no very alarming size, comprise all that has
yet been ascertained upon this subject.