There is a delicacy of taste observable in some men, which
very much resembles this delicacy of passion, and produces the
same sensibility to beauty and deformity of every kind, as
that does to prosperity and adversity, obligations and
injuries. When you present a poem or a picture to a man
possessed of this talent, the delicacy of his feeling makes
him be sensibly touched with every part of it; nor are the
masterly strokes perceived with more exquisite relish and
satisfaction, than the negligences or absurdities with disgust
and uneasiness. A polite and judicious conversation affords
him the highest entertainment; rudeness or impertinence is as
great a punishment to him. In short, delicacy of taste has the
same effect as delicacy of passion: It enlarges the sphere
both of our happiness and misery, and makes us sensible to
pains as well as pleasures, which escape the rest of mankind.
I believe, however, every one will agree with me, that,
notwithstanding this resemblance, delicacy of taste is as much
to be desired and cultivated as delicacy of passion is to be
lamented, and to be remedied, if possible.
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