DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61012#0159
THE SE VEN TH DISCO URSE. 12 5
complain, since the old has that great advantage of having
custom and prejudice on its side. In this case we leave
what has every prejudice in its favour, to take that which
will have no advantage over what we have left, but novelty;
which soon destroys itself, and at any rate is but a weak
antagonist against custom.
Ancient ornaments, having the right of possession, ought
not to be removed, unless to make room for that which not
only has higher pretensions, but such pretensions as will
balance the evil and confusion which innovation always
brings with it.
To this we may add, that even the durability of the
materials will often contribute to give a superiority to one
object over another. Ornaments in buildings, with which
taste is principally concerned, are composed of materials
which last longer than those of which dress is composed ;
the former, therefore, make higher pretensions to our
favour and prejudice.
Some attention is surely due to what we can no more
get rid of than we can go out of ourselves. We are
creatures of prejudice ; we neither can nor ought to eradi-
cate it; we must only regulate it by reason; which
kind of regulation is indeed little more than obliging the
lesser, the local and temporal prejudices, to give way to
those which are more durable and lasting.
He, therefore, who in his practice of portrait-painting
wishes to dignify his subject, which we will suppose to be a
lady, will not paint her in the modern dress, the familiarity
of which alone is sufficient to destroy all dignity. He
takes care that his work shall correspond to those ideas and
that imagination which he knows will regulate the
judgment of others ; and, therefore, dresses his figure some-
thing with the general air of the antique for the sake
complain, since the old has that great advantage of having
custom and prejudice on its side. In this case we leave
what has every prejudice in its favour, to take that which
will have no advantage over what we have left, but novelty;
which soon destroys itself, and at any rate is but a weak
antagonist against custom.
Ancient ornaments, having the right of possession, ought
not to be removed, unless to make room for that which not
only has higher pretensions, but such pretensions as will
balance the evil and confusion which innovation always
brings with it.
To this we may add, that even the durability of the
materials will often contribute to give a superiority to one
object over another. Ornaments in buildings, with which
taste is principally concerned, are composed of materials
which last longer than those of which dress is composed ;
the former, therefore, make higher pretensions to our
favour and prejudice.
Some attention is surely due to what we can no more
get rid of than we can go out of ourselves. We are
creatures of prejudice ; we neither can nor ought to eradi-
cate it; we must only regulate it by reason; which
kind of regulation is indeed little more than obliging the
lesser, the local and temporal prejudices, to give way to
those which are more durable and lasting.
He, therefore, who in his practice of portrait-painting
wishes to dignify his subject, which we will suppose to be a
lady, will not paint her in the modern dress, the familiarity
of which alone is sufficient to destroy all dignity. He
takes care that his work shall correspond to those ideas and
that imagination which he knows will regulate the
judgment of others ; and, therefore, dresses his figure some-
thing with the general air of the antique for the sake