"David Hume - Of the Standard of Taste" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

to encrease and improve this talent, than practice in a
particular art, and the frequent survey or contemplation of a
particular species of beauty. When objects of any kind are
first presented to the eye or imagination, the sentiment,
which attends them, is obscure and confused; and the mind is,
in a great measure, incapable of pronouncing concerning their
merits or defects. The taste cannot perceive the several
excellences of the performance; much less distinguish the
particular character of each excellency, and ascertain its
quality and degree. If it pronounce the whole in general to be
beautiful or deformed, it is the utmost that can be expected;
and even this judgment, a person, so unpracticed, will be apt
to deliver with great hesitation and reserve. But allow him to
acquire experience in those objects, his feeling becomes more
exact and nice: He not only perceives the beauties and defects
of each part, but marks the distinguishing species of each
quality, and assigns it suitable praise or blame. A clear and
distinct sentiment attends him through the whole survey of the
objects; and he discerns that very degree and kind of
approbation or displeasure, which each part is naturally
fitted to produce. The mist dissipates, which seemed formerly
to hang over the object: the organ acquires greater perfection
in its operations; and can pronounce, without danger of
mistake, concerning the merits of every performance. In a
word, the same address and dexterity, which practice gives to
the execution of any work, is also acquired by the same means
in the judging of it.

So advantageous is practice to the discernment of beauty,
that, before we can give judgment of any work of importance,
it will even be requisite, that that very individual
performance be more than once perused by us, and be surveyed
in different lights with attention and deliberation. There is
a flutter or hurry of thought which attends the first perusal
of any piece, and which confounds the genuine sentiment of
beauty. The relation of the parts is not discerned: The true
characters of style are little distinguished: The several
perfections and defects seem wrapped up in a species of
confusion, and present themselves indistinctly to the
imagination. Not to mention, that there is a species of
beauty, which, as it is florid and superficial, pleases at
first; but being found incompatible with a just expression
either of reason or passion, soon palls upon the taste, and is
then rejected with disdain, at least rated at a much lower
value.

It is impossible to continue in the practice of contemplating
any order of beauty, without being frequently obliged to form
comparisons between the several species and degrees of
excellence, and estimating their proportion to each other. A