Switzerland and Germany are the first objects of the new French politicians. When I contemplate what they have done at home, which is in effect little lefs than an amazing conqueft wrought by a change of opinion, in a great part (to be fure far from altogether) very fudden, I cannot help letting my thoughts run along with their defigns, and without attending to geographical order, to confider the other ftates of Europe fo far as they may be any way affected by this aftonifhing revolution. If early fteps are not taken in fome way or other to prevent the spreading of this influence, I fcarcely think any of them perfectly fecure.Memorial on the Affairs of France in 1791.

SECT. (FRENCH ATHEISTS.)

I MUST declare, that the doctrine and difcipline of this fect is one of the moft alarming circumftances relating to it, and the attempt to compare them with the opinions of fchool theologicians, is a thing in itfelf highly alarming. I know that when men poffefs the best principles, the paffions lead them to act in oppofition to them. But when the moral principles are formed fyftematically to play into the hand of the paffions; when that which is to correct vice and to reftrain violence, is by an infernal doctrine, daringly avowed, carefully propagated, enthufiaftically held, and practically followed, I fhall think myself treated like a child, when I hear this compared to a controverfy in the schools. When I fee a great country, with all its refources, poffeffed by this fect, and turned to its purpofes, I muft be worse than a child to conceive it a thing indifferent to me.

When

this great country is fo near me, and otherwife fo fituated, that except through its territory, I can hardly have a communication with any other, the ftate of moral and political opinion, and moral and political difcipline in that country, becomes of still greater

1

importance to me. When robbers, affaffins, and rebels, are not only debauched, but endoctrinated regularly, by a courfe of inverted education, into murder, infurrection, and the violation of all property, I hold, that this, inftead of excufing, or pal liating their offences, infpires a peculiar venom into every evil act they do; and that all fuch universities of crimes, and all fuch profeffors of robbery, are in a perpetual state of hoftility with mankind.-Regicide Peace.

SUMMUM JUS.

WHEN Confidence is once reftored, the odious and fufpicious fummum jus will perifh of course.Speech on American Taxation.

TASTE.

General Idea of Tafte.

But to cut off all pretence for cavilling, I mean by the word Tafte, no more than that faculty or those faculties of the mind, which are affected with, or which form a judgment of, the works of imagination and the elegant arts. This is, I think, the most general idea of that word, and what is the leaft connected with any particular theory. And my point in this inquiry is, to find whether there are any principles, on which the imagination is affected, fo common to all, fo grounded and certain, as to fupply the means of reafoning fatisfactorily about them. And fuch principles of tafte I fancy there are; however paradoxical it may seem to thofe who, on a fuperficial view, imagine that there is fo great a diversity of tastes, both in kind and degree, that nothing can be more determinate.

All the natural powers in man, which I know, that are converfant about external objects, are the fenfes; the imagination; and the judgment. And firft with

If we

regard to the fenfes. We do and we muft fuppofe, that as the conformation of their organs are nearly or altogether the fame in all men, fo the manner of perceiving external objects is in all men the fame, or with little difference. We are fatisfied that what appears to be light to one eye, appears light to another; that what feems fweet to one palate, is fweet to another; that what is dark and bitter to this man, is likewife dark and bitter to that; and we conclude in the fame manner of great and little, hard and foft, hot and cold, rough and fimooth; and indeed of all the natural qualities and affections of bodies. fuffer ourselves to imagine, that their fenfes prefent to different men different images of things, this feeptical proceeding will make every fort of reasoning on every subject vain and frivolous, even that fceptical reafoning itself which had perfuaded us to entertain a doubt concerning the agreement of our perceptions. But as there will be little doubt that bodies prefent fimilar images to the whole fpecies, it must neceffarily be allowed, that the pleasures and the pains which every object excites in one man, it must raife in all mankind, whilft it operates naturally, fimply, and by its proper powers only; for if we deny this, we must imagine that the fame caufe operating in the fame manner, and on fubjects of the fame kind, will produce different effects, which would be highly abfurd. Let us first confider this point in the fenfe of tafte, and the rather as the faculty in queftion has taken its name from that fenfe. All men are agreed to call vinegar four, honey fweet, and aloes bitter; and as they are all agreed in finding thefe qualities in thofe objects, they do not in the least differ concerning their effects with regard to pleasure and pain. They all concur in calling sweetness pleafant, and fournefs and bitterness unpleasant. Here there is no diverfity in their fentiments; and that there is not, appears fully from the confent of all men in the metaphors which are taken from the sense of taste. A four A four temper, bitter expres

fions, bitter curfes, a bitter fate, are terms well and ftrongly understood by all. And we are altogether as well understood when we fay a fweet difpofition, a fweet perfon, a fweet condition, and the like. It is confeffed, that cuftom, and fome other caufes, have madẹ many deviations from the natural pleafures or pains which belong to these feveral taftes; but then the power of diftinguifhing between the natural and the acquired relifh remains to the very laft. A man frequently comes to prefer the tafte of tobacco to that of fugar, and the flavour of vinegar to that of milk; but this makes no confufion in taftes, whilft he is fenfible that the tobacco and vinegar are not fweet, and whilst he knows that habit alone has reconciled his palate to thefe alien pleasures. Even with fuch a perfon we may fpeak, and with fufficient precifion, concerning taftes. But fhould any man be found who declares, that to him tobacco has a taste like fugar, and that he cannot distinguish between milk and vinegar; or that tobacco and vinegar are fweet, milk bitter, and fugar four; we immediately conclude that the organs of this man are out of order, and that his palate is utterly vitiated. We are as far from conferring with fuch a perfon upon taftes, as from reafoning concerning the relations of quantity, with one who should deny that all the parts together were equal to the whole. We do not call a man of this kind wrong in his notions, but abfolutely mad. Exceptions of this fort, in either way, do not at all impeach our general rule, nor make us conclude that men have various principles concerning the relations of quantity, or the taste of things. So that when it is faid, tafte cannot be disputed, it can only mean, that no one can strictly anfwer what pleafure or pain fome particular man may find from the tafte of fome particular thing. This indeed cannot be difputed; but we may difpute, and with fufficient clearness too, concerning the things which are naturally pleafing or difagree able to the fenfe. But when we talk of any peculiar or acquired relifh, then we muft know the habits, the

D D

prejudices, or the diftempers of this particular man, and we muft draw our conclufion from thofe.

This agreement of mankind is not confined to the tafte folely. The principle of pleafure derived from fight is the fame in all. Light is more pleafing than darknefs. Summer, when the earth is clad in green, when the heavens are ferene and bright, is more agreeable than winter, when every thing makes a different appearance. I never remember that any thing beautiful, whether a man, a beast, a bird, or a plant, was ever fhewn, though it were to an hundred people, that they did not all immediately agree that it was beautiful, though fome might have thought that it fell fhort of their expectation, or that other things were ftill finer.Sublime and Beautiful.

A man to whom fculpture is new fees a barber's. block, or fome ordinary piece of ftatuary, he is immediately ftruck and pleafed, because he fees fomething like a human figure; and, entirely taken up with this likenefs, he does not at all attend to its defects. No perfon, I believe, at the first time of feeing a piece of imitation ever did. Some time after, we fuppofe that this novice lights upon a more artificial work of the fame nature. He now begins to look with contempt on what he admired at first; not that he admired it even then for its unlikeness to a man, but for that general though inaccurate refemblance which it bore to the human figure. What he admired at different times in thefe fo different figures, is ftrictly the fame; and though his knowledge is improved, his tafte is not altered. Hitherto his miftake was from a want of knowledge in art, and this arofe from his inexperience; but he may be ftill deficient from a want of knowledge in nature.

For