Good Senfe, which only is the gift of Heav'n, A Light, which in yourself you must perceive; 45 Jones and Le Nôtre have it not to give. To build, to plant, whatever you intend, To rear the Column, or the Arch to bend, COMMENTARY. VER. 47. To build, to plant, &c.] 2. The next quality, for dignity and ufe, is TASTE, and but the next: For, as the poet truly obferves, there is something previous ev'n to Tafte-'tis Senfe; and this, in the order of things: For Senfe is a taste and true conception of Nature; and Tafte is a fenfe or true conception of beautiful Nature; but we must first know the Effences of things, before we can judge truly of their Qualities. The bufinefs of Tafte, therefore, in the pursuit of Magnificence, is, as the poet fhews us (from 46 to 65) 1. (to 51) To catch or lay hold on Nature, where the appears moft in her charms. 2. (to 57) To adorn her, when taken, as beft fuits her dignity and quality; that is, to dress her in the light and modeft habit of a virgin, not load her with the gaudy ornaments of a proftitute. This rule obferved, will prevent a tranfgreffion in the following, which is, not to let all its beauties be seen at once, but in fucceffion; for that advantage is infeparable from a graceful and well-dreffed perfon. 3. (to 65) To take care that NOTES. paid for, will need a very broad hint indeed; especially when followed by another as ftrange, that there is ― fomething previous ev'n to Tafte-'tis Senfe. Yet as fevere a fubject of humiliation as all this is to the Rich, it was but neceffary to inculcate it, in order to work in them, if poffible, that teachableness of mind neceffary for their profiting by the following inftructions, VER. 46. Inigo Jones the celebrated Architect, and M. Le Nôtre, the defigner of the best Gardens of France. P. 50 To fwell the Terras, or to fink the Grot; COMMENTARY. the ornaments be well fuited to that part, which it is your purpose to adorn; and, as in dreffing out a modeft Fair (which is the poet's own comparifon) the colours are proportioned to her complexion; the ftuff, to the enbonpoint of her person; and the fashion, to her air and fhape; fo in ornamenting a villa, the rife or fall of waters fhould correfpond to its acclivities or declivities; the artificial hills or vales to its cover or exposure; and the manner of calling in the country, to the difpofition of its afpect. But again, as in the illuftration, whatever be the variety in colour, ftuff, or fafhion, they muft ftill be fo fuited with refpect to one another, as to produce an agreement and harmony in their affemblage; fo woods, waters, mountains, vales, and vistas must, amidst all their diverfity, be fo difpofed with a relation to each other, as to create a perfect fymmetry refulting from the whole; and this, the Genius of the place, when reli NOTES. VER. 53. Let not each beau- | ty ev'ry where be spy'd,] For when the fame beauty obtrudes itself upon you over and over; when it meets you full at whatever place you ftop, or to whatever point you turn, then Nature lofes her proper charms of a modeft fair; and you be gin to hate and naufeate her as a prostitute. VER. 54. Where half the skill is decently to hide.] If the poet was right in comparing the true drefs of Nature to that of a modeft fair, it is a plain confequence, that one half of the defigner's art must be, de Confult the Genius of the Place in all; Or helps th'ambitious Hill the heav'ns to scale, 60 Calls in the Country, catches op'ning glades, Joins willing woods, and varies fhades from fhades; Now breaks or now directs, th' intending Lines; Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs. COMMENTARY. giously confulted, will never fail to inform us of; who, as the poet fays, Now breaks, and now directs th' intending lines, And this is a full and complete defcription of the office of Tafte. NOTES. cently to hide; as the other half is, gracefully to discover. - | lufions, all rifing one above another, till they complete the unity of the general idea. VER. 57. Confult the Genius of the Place, &c. to dfigns, First, the Genius of the place 64.] The perfonalizing or ra- tells the waters, or only fimther deifying the Genius of the ply gives directions: Then he place, in order to be confulted helps th' ambitious bill, or is a as an Oracle, has produced-one fellow-labourer: Then again of the nobleft and most sublime he Scoops the circling Theatre, defcriptions of Defign, that or works alone, or in chief. poety could exprefs. Where Afterwards, rifing fast in our this Genius, while prefiding | idea of dignity, he calls in the over the work, is reprefent- country, alluding to the orders ed by little and little, as ad- of princes in their progress, vancing from a fimple adviser, when accustomed to display all to a creator of all the beauties their ftate and magnificence: of improved Nature, in a vaHis character then grows fariety of bold metaphors and al-cred, he joins willing woods, a Still follow Senfe, of ev'ry Art the Soul, 65 Parts anfw'ring parts fhall flide into a whole, COMMENTARY. VER. 65. Still follow Senfe, &c] But now when Good Senfe has led us up to Tafte, our fondness for the elegancies of our new, mistress, oftentimes occafions us to neglect the plainness and fimplicity of the old; we are but too apt to forfake our Guide, and to give ourselves up folely to Tafle. Our author's next rule therefore 3. is, Still to follow Senfe, and let it perpetually accompany us thro' all the works of Tafte. Still follow Senfe, of ev'ry art the Soul. That is, Good Senfe fhould never be a moment absent from the works of Tafte, any more than the Soul from the Body; for just as the Soul animates and informs every air and feature of a beauteous body, fo Sense gives life and vigour to all the products of Tafte. VER. 66. Parts anfw'ring parts, &c.] The particular advantages of the union of Sense with Taste he then explains (from this verfe to 71) 1. That the beautiful parts which Tafte has laid NOTES. metaphor taken from the office of the priesthood, in the administration of one of its holy rites; till at length, he becomes a Divinity, and creates and prefides over the whole : Now breaks, or now directs th'intending lines, Much in the fame manner as VER. 65. Still follow Senfe, &c.] The not obferving this rule, bewilder'd a late noble writer (diftinguished for his philofophy of Tafte) in the purfuit of the Grand and Magnificent in moral life; who, when Good Senfe had led him up to the τὸ καλὸν καὶ τὸ πρέπον, of ancient renown, discharged his Guide; and, captivated with the delights of Tafte, refolved all into the elegancies of that idea: And now, Reafon, Morality, Religion, and the truth of things, were nothing else but TASTE; which, (that he might not be thought altoge Spontaneous beauties all around advance, COMMENTARY. 70 out and contrived, Senfe makes to answer one another, and to flide naturally, without violence, into a whole. 2. That many beauties will Spontaneously offer themselves, fuggefted from the very neceffity which Senfe lays upon us, of conforming the parts to the whole, that no original invention of Tafte would have fupplied. 3. A third advantage is, that you are then always fure to have Nature on your fide, Nature fball join you The expreffion is important, when we were bid to begin with Senfe we were fhewn how this would lead us to Tafte, in the purfuit of Nature but now that he bids us to go on with Sense, or fill to follow it, after having arrived at Tafte, he tells us, that Nature will then join us of her own accord : This has a great beauty, which arises from the Philofophic Truth of the obfervation. For, as we obferved before,-Senfe being a right conception of Nature; and Taste a right conception of beautiful Nature; when these are in conjunction, Nature can ftand out NOTES. ther to have deferted his fage conductress) he sometimes dignified with the name of the moral fenfe: And he fucceeded, in the pursuit of Truth, accordingly. VER. 66. Parts anfw'ring parts fhall flide into a whole,] i. e. fhall not be forced, but go of themselves; as if both the parts and whole were not of yours, but of Nature's making. The metaphor is taken from a piece of mechanifm finished by fome great mafter, where all the parts are so previously fitted, as to be easily put together by any ordinary workman and each part flides into its place, as it were thro' a groove ready made for that pur pofe. VER. 70. The feat and gardens of the Lord Viscount Cobham in Buckinghamshire. P. |