Page:A Dissertation on Reading the Classics and Forming a Just Style.djvu/189

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Taste.
145

Taste, my Lord, is a Metaphor borrowed from the Palate, by which we approve or dislike what we eat and drink from the Agreeableness or Disagreeableness of the Relish in our Mouth. Nature directs us in the Common Use, and every body can tell Sweet from Bitter, what is Sharp, or Sour, or Vapid, or Nauseous; but it requireth Senses more refined and exercised, to discover every Taste that is most perfect in its Kind; every Palate is not a Judge of that, and yet Drinking is more used than Reading; all that I pretend to know of the Matter, is, my Lord, that Wine should be like a Style,

H
clear,