What equally engages our wonder is, that the taste of the Greeks, superior to the vicissitudes of time and fortune, kept constantly clear of the vices of excessive refinement; and, as it had, in its origin, escaped all the grossness and rusticity of barbarism, so, at no period of its duration, did it ever decline into that quaintness of thought and expression, those glaring figures of discourse, the pointed antithesis, the unnatural conceit, the jingle of words, and such other meretricious embellishments, as, in some one age, have marked and disgraced the literary productions of other countries. "Such false ornaments," as has been justly remarked, by an author, who formed his taste upon the modes of antiquity, "were not employed by those writers; not because they were rejected, but because they scarcely ever occurred to them. Throughout all the branches of polite letters, and liberal arts, which they have cultivated with such unparalelled success, however different in their nature, and varying in their style of composition, one sisterly feature will be found to pervade the whole, a sublime simplicity and chastity of ornament, which may be emphatically denominated inimitable.

Man, unassisted by the light of Revelation, seems to be the mere creature of circumstances, and to have his moral character, (under which term I include his tastes) in a great measure, if not entirely, dependent upon his physical constitution. According to this principle, if we are to judge from effects, the ancient inhabitants of Greece appear to have been particularly fortunate in that temperament of body, which has so decisive an effect upon the tone of mind,* as almost to identify corporeal and intellectual faculties. There was nothing either of obtuse or dull in their feelings. Their blood, in the language of one of our poets, was pure and eloquent ;" and that part of the system, framed from this parent source, arising from the brain, pervading the whole human structure, and which is denominated the nerves, was in them endued with the most exquisite sensibility. It

-And so divinely wrought,

That one had almost said the body thought.

C

is manifest that such a disposition is peculiarly susceptible of impression, and that constitutional enthusiasm may easily receive a wrong bias. It is for this reason, that judicious parents and instructors of youth are so laudably anxious to keep their charge, even in infancy, far from the influence of bad example. It is a maxim with them, that first impressions, especially if reiterated, are most lasting. Had there arisen in Greece, at the period I allude to, that is, during the infancy of the nation, a Genius, whose aim was rather to shine, than to enlighten; to surprize, than to inform; to astonish, than to move or affect; more solicitous about the brilliancy, than the solidity of his thoughts; more studious of point, than of purity of expression ; ambitious of ornament, and a determined foe to simplicity of sentiment or phrase: can there be a doubt, as to what his success would have been, with a people so framed, constituted, and circumstanced, as I have supposed, and not gratuitously, the Greeks to have been? During the infancy of taste, says a judicious writer, imagination is suffered to roam, as in sleep, without control. Wonder is the passion of savages

and of rustics; to raise which, nothing is necessary but to invent giants and magicians, fairy-land and inchantment. The earliest exploits, recorded of warlike nations, are giants mowing down whole armies, and little men overcoming giants; witness Joannes, Magnus, Torfeus, and other Scandinavian writers. Such gigantic fictions naturally generate gigantic similies, metaphors, and allegories; in one word, a taste for the bombastic. Allied to these are point, antithesis, conceit, pun, and conundrum. These at first surprise, then seduce, and ultimately debauch, a mind not yet secured by the study of beauty and deformity. It is true, that taste, as well as the moral sense, is born with us; but both of them require great cultivation. They are like our other senses, the fallacy of which must be corrected by reasoning and reflexion. I am so far from supposing any thing extraordinary in the natural taste of the Greeks, that I am contending, on the contrary, that it would infallibly have been corrupted by such vicious models, as I have been adverting to, had they been at first presented to it. This is not mere matter of surmise or

conjecture. It is true, as I have already observed, that an easy, unforced strain of sentiment runs through their compositions, almost universally; and yet, amidst the most elegant simplicity of thought and expression, one is sometimes surprised and shocked at meeting with some poor conceit, which had offered itself, unsought for, to the mind of the author, and which he had not acquired critical observation enough to condemn. A bad taste, says a writer, whom I have already quoted, seizes with avidity those frivolous beauties, and even, perhaps, a good taste, ere surfeited by them. They multiply every day more and more in the fashionable compositions. Nature and good sense are neglected; laboured ornaments studied and admired; and a total degeneracy of style and language prepares the way for barbarism and ignorance. Such instances occurring, however seldom, in some of the best writers, that Athens produced, shewed at least that the taste of the nation might have been originally corrupted. Even Aristotle treats very seriously of puns, and having divided them into their several classifications, as seriously recommends