40 .

TASTE.

Iect. to command laPcing and general admiration. InII. every compofition, what interefts the imagination ,and touches the heart, pleafes all ages and allnations. There is a certain firing, which, beingproperly ftruck, the human heart is fo madeas to anfwer to it.

Hence the univerfal teffcimony which the nioffcimproved nations of the earth have confpired,throughout a long trad of ages, to give tofome few works of genius; fuch as the Iliad ofHomer. and the iEneid of Virgil. Hence theauthority which fuch works have acquired, asflandards in fome degree of poetical compofition;fjnce from them we are enabled to colled whatthe fenfe of mankind is, concerning thofe beau-ties which give them the higheft pleafure , andwhich therefore poetry ought to exhibit. Au-thority or prejudice may, in one age or country,give a temporary reputation to an indifferentpoet, or a bad artifl;; but when foreigners, orwhen pofterity examine his works, his faultsare difcerned , and the genuine Tafte of humannature appears. “ Opinionum commenta deletdies; naturae judicia confirmat.” Time over-throws the illufions of opinion, but eftablifhesthe decifions of nature.