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    of modern improvement and peaceable civilization , our sense of fitness revolts , the attainment of a higher intellectual stand dissipates the flimsy beauty which hung about them , and deceived us from a lower point of view—not , however , dispossessing us of the capability of a superior sensibility , as superior in

    refinement as in permanence . And this theory , that the emotions of beauty can only permanently subsist by harmonising with the principles of utility , conducts us to another , or rather to an extention of the same , —viz . the principle , that degrees of the pleasures of imagination graduate in value according to the degrees of value of the utility with which they harmonise .

    The full theoretical exposition of this principle would lead us top far from the immediate subject of the essay ; but I believe it may be made sufficiently clear by an example . What is it which elevates historical painting as a class above landscape ? It is the greater intensity of the passions of which our fellowcreatures are the objects , above those of which inanimate nature

    is the object , in consequence of the superior potency of human beings in influencing happiness or misery . The higher the intensity of which a passion is capable , the richer is the field it affords for the exercise of imagination . It is this which places a play of Shakspeare ' s above the spectacle of King

    Arthur ; one appealing to our sympathies with " scenery , dresses , and decorations ; " the other to the interest we feel in the workings of the human heart ; and the superiority of this latter interest is founded on our experience of the higher utility of the subject .

    This case affords a very clear view of the meaning of a Standard of Taste , and of the state of things with respect to it . What is it which makes the character of Hermione or Cordelia more interesting in works of fiction than such characters as those of Beatrice or Juliet *—supposing the skill of delineation equal ? It is the experience of the greater importance to human happiness of that high order of moral cultivation , which implies

    intellectual , above the quickness of wit which may exist either with or without more essential qualities , and above that vividness of passion and imagination which may , or may not , + be $ till more superficially and transiently delightful . We estimate , on the same principle , a character drawn , or rather sculptured , by Godwin , above a sketch by Smollett , ; ) ; because one presents to u § a view of the profoundest combinations of the elements of human passion , while the other depends for its interest chiefly

    . t We do not at all admire this " pitting " of fine and noble characters against each ot ^ er . Resides , granting circumstances , " who knows ? " &c . —Ed . t lA ^ ' { A ere ' t t ^ e rub , that makes calamity' or happiness ' of so long life . ' - _/?< £ I Rather say , Washington Irving , or Marryat , —Ed .

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    94 Js there a Standard of Taste 9

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  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1837, page 94, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1828/page/47/