ts decide, and that is a decision from
which there lies no appeal. It must however be confessed, that the
nicer separations of character, and the lighter and almost imperceptible
shades which sometimes distinguish them, will not be intimately
relished, unless there be a consonancy of taste as well as feeling in
the spectator; though where the passions are principally concerned,
the profane vulgar come in for a larger portion of the universal
delight, than critics and connoisseurs are willing to allow them.

YET enthusiasm, though the natural concomitant of genius, is no more
genius itself, than drunkenness is cheerfulness; and that enthusiasm
which discovers itself on occasions not worthy to excite it, is the mark
of a wretched judgment and a false taste.

NATURE produces innumerable objects: to imitate them, is the province of
Genius; to direct those imitations, is the property of Judgment; to
decide on their effects, is the business of Taste. For Taste, who sits
as supreme judge on the productions of Genius, is not satisfied when she
merely imitates Nature: she must also, says an ingenious French writer,
imitate _beautiful_ Nature. It requires no less judgment to reject than
to choose, and Genius might imitate what is vulgar, under pretence that
it was natural, if Taste did not carefully point out those objects which
are most proper for imitation. It also requires a very nice discernment
to distinguish verisimilitude from truth; for there is a truth in Taste
nearly as conclusive as demonstration in mathematics.

GENIUS, when in the full impetuosity of its career, often touches on the
very brink of error; and is, perhaps, never so near the verge of the
precipice, as when indulging its sublimest flights. It is in those
great, but dangerous moments, that the curb of vigilant judgment is most
wanting: while safe and sober Dulness observes one tedious and insipid
round of tiresome uniformity, and steers equally clear of eccentricity
and of beauty. Dulness has few redundancies to retrench, few
luxuriancies to prune, and few irregularities to smooth. These, though
errors, are the errors of Genius, for there is rarely redundancy without
plenitude, or irregularity without greatness. The excesses of Genius
may easily be retrenched, but the deficiencies of Dulness can never be
supplied.

THOSE who copy from others will doubtless be less excellent than those
who copy from Nature. To imitate imitators, is the way to depart too