DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61012#0162
12 8 THE SE VEH TH DISCO URSE.
of Philosophy into the regions of taste, is, that it checks
and restrains the flights of the imagination, and gives that
timidity, which an over-carefulness not to err or act con-
trary to reason is likely to produce. It is not so. Pear
is neither reason nor philosophy. The true spirit of
philosophy, by giving knowledge, gives a manly confidence,
and substitutes rational firmness in the place of vain
presumption. A man of real taste is always a man of
judgment in other respects; and those inventions which
either disdain or shrink from reason are generally, I fear,
more like the dreams of a distempered brain than the
exalted enthusiasm of a sound and true genius. In the
midst of the highest flights of fancy or imagination, reason
ought to preside from first to last, though I admit her more
powerful operation is upon reflection.
Let me add, that some of the greatest names of antiquity,
and those who have most distinguished themselves in works
of genius and imagination, were equally eminent for their
critical skill. Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Horace; and
among the moderns, Boileau, Corneille, Pope, and Dryden,
are at least instances of genius not being destroyed by
attention or subjection to rules and science. I should hope,
therefore, that the natural consequence of what has been
said would be, to excite in you a desire of knowing the
principles and conduct of the great masters of our art, and
respect and veneration for them when known.
of Philosophy into the regions of taste, is, that it checks
and restrains the flights of the imagination, and gives that
timidity, which an over-carefulness not to err or act con-
trary to reason is likely to produce. It is not so. Pear
is neither reason nor philosophy. The true spirit of
philosophy, by giving knowledge, gives a manly confidence,
and substitutes rational firmness in the place of vain
presumption. A man of real taste is always a man of
judgment in other respects; and those inventions which
either disdain or shrink from reason are generally, I fear,
more like the dreams of a distempered brain than the
exalted enthusiasm of a sound and true genius. In the
midst of the highest flights of fancy or imagination, reason
ought to preside from first to last, though I admit her more
powerful operation is upon reflection.
Let me add, that some of the greatest names of antiquity,
and those who have most distinguished themselves in works
of genius and imagination, were equally eminent for their
critical skill. Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Horace; and
among the moderns, Boileau, Corneille, Pope, and Dryden,
are at least instances of genius not being destroyed by
attention or subjection to rules and science. I should hope,
therefore, that the natural consequence of what has been
said would be, to excite in you a desire of knowing the
principles and conduct of the great masters of our art, and
respect and veneration for them when known.