Taste is the discriminating talisman, enabling its owner to see at once
the real merits of persons and things, to ascertain at a glance the true
from the false, and to decide rightly on the value of individuals.
Nothing escapes him who walks the world with his eyes touched by this
ointment; they are open to all around him--to admire, or to condemn--to
gaze with rapture, or to turn away with disgust, where another shall
pass and see nothing to excite the slightest emotion. The fair creation
of nature, and the works of man afford _him_ a wide field of continual
gratification. The brook, brawling over its bed of rocks or pebbles,
half concealed by the overhanging bushes that fringe its banks--or the
great river flowing, in unperturbed majesty, through a wide vale of
peace and plenty, or forcing its passage through a lofty range of
opposing hills--the gentle knoll, and the towering mountain--the rocky
dell, and the awful precipice--the young plantation, and the venerable
forest, are alike to him objects of interest and of admiration.
So in the works of man, a foot-bridge, thrown across a torrent, may be
in it as gratifying to the man of taste as the finest arch, or most
wonderful chain-bridge in the world; and a cottage of the humblest order
may be so beautifully situated, so neatly kept, and so tastefully
adorned with woodbine and jessamine, as to call forth his admiration
equally with the princely residence of the British landholder, in all
its pride of position, and splendour of architecture.
In short, this faculty is applicable to every object; and he who finds
any thing too lofty or too humble for his admiration, does not possess
it. It is exercised in the every-day affairs of life as much as in the
higher arts and sciences.--_Monthly Magazine._
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