maxims  of  right  reason  seem  to  be  tacitly  settled
amongst  the  most  ignorant.  The  learned  have  im-
proved on  this  rude  science,  and  reduced  those  max-
ims into  a  system.  If  taste  has  not  been  so  happily
cultivated,  it  was  not  that  the  subject  was  barren,  but
that  the  laborers  were  few  or  negligent ;  for,  to  say
the  truth,  there  are  not  the  same  interesting  motives
to  impel  us  to  fix  the  one,  which  urge  us  to  ascertain
the  other.  And,  after  all,  if  men  differ  in  their  opin-
ion concerning  such  matters,  their  difference  is  not
attended  with  the  same  important  consequences  ;  else
I  make  no  doubt  but  that  the  logic  of  taste,  if  I  may
be  allowed  the  expression,  might  very  possibly  be  as
well  digested,  and  we  might  come  to  discuss  matters
of  this  nature  with  as  much  certainty,  as  those  which
seem  more  immediately  within  the  province  of  mere
reason.  And,  indeed,  it  is  very  necessary,  at  the  en-
trance into  such  an  inquiry  as  our  present,  to  make
this  point  as  clear  as  possible ;  for  if  taste  has  no
fixed  principles,  if  the  imagination  is  not  affected  ac-
cording to  some  invariable  and  certain  laws,  our  la-
bor is  likely  to  be  employed  to  very  little  purpose  ;  as
it  must  be  judged  an  useless,  if  not  an  absurd  under-
taking, to  lay  down  rules  for  caprice,  and  to  set  up
for  a  legislator  of  whims  and  fancies.
