| Citation |
NHG-P.772.098
30 Oct 1772:33 (837)
To the Printers, Sir, At a period of time, when learning
seems to flourish in this new world, and men of genius are
distinguished and rewarded by a generous people, I cannot
but express my concern, that the study of the fine arts,
especially those of polite literature are so much neglected,
and considered only as an amusement in comparison with the
more solid branches of learning.
It is very certain indeed, that the knowledge of
languages, metaphysics, mathematics and phylosophy, cannot
sufficiently engaged the attention of the greatest genius
(and we shall always revere the memory of a Bacon, a Newton,
and a Locke) but when they are carried to a certain point,
by being employed upon questions which human nature never
with certainty can determine, and of course can answer no
use in the common affairs of life, they can be of no other
service than to enlarge our ideas, and entertain us in our
leisure hours, when we unbend our minds from the fatigues of
business; . . . [12 more lines]
It is a truth too obvious to be doubted, that we are
extremely liable to be drawn away by mean and sordid vices,
attached to the low enjoyments of sense, and thus almost
degraded to a level with the brute creation, but the Divine
Being, every watchful over the welfare of mankind, to
prepare us for happiness hereafter, hath implanted in our
minds a taste for more sublime and intellectual pleasures;
and this is only found in the elegant entertainments of
polite literature: For, they ennoble the soul, purify the
passions, and give our thoughts a better turn, and by that
means set us above our meaner pursuits, scorning those low
enjoyments heretofore considered as our greatest happiness.
And I dare advance it as a fact, that no person of good
sense can rise from perusing a fine poem, or viewing any
masterly performance of genius, or hear an harmonious
concert of music, or even the organ well played, without the
most lively sensation of pleasure, an openness of heart, and
sensible of the dignity of nature, and despising whatever
tends to degrade it.
. . . [25 more lines]
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