transferred to the pursuit of lighter amusements: the same

disposition, the same desire to find something steady, substantial,

and durable, on which the mind can lean, as it were, and rest with

safety. The subject only is changed. We pursue the same method in

our search after the idea of beauty and perfection in each; of

virtue, by looking forwards beyond ourselves to society, and to the

whole; of arts, by extending our views in the same manner to all

ages and all times.

Every art, like our own, has in its composition fluctuating as well

as fixed principles. It is an attentive inquiry into their

difference that will enable us to determine how far we are

influenced by custom and habit, and what is fixed in the nature of

things.

To distinguish how much has solid foundation, we may have recourse

to the same proof by which some hold wit ought to be tried--whether

it preserves itself when translated. That wit is false which can

subsist only in one language; and that picture which pleases only

one age or one nation, owes its reception to some local or

accidental association of ideas.

We may apply this to every custom and habit of life. Thus the

general principles of urbanity, politeness, or civility, have been

ever the same in all nations; but the mode in which they are

dressed is continually varying. The general idea of showing

respect is by making yourself less: but the manner, whether by

bowing the body, kneeling, prostration, pulling off the upper part

of our dress, or taking away the lower, is a matter of habit. It

would be unjust to conclude that all ornaments, because they were

at first arbitrarily contrived, are therefore undeserving of our

attention; on the contrary, he who neglects the cultivation of

those ornaments, acts contrarily to nature and reason. As life

would be imperfect without its highest ornaments, the arts, so