CHAP. III. Of Novelty. five and six hundred years, under the suc cessive domination of the Athenians, the Lacedæmonians, the Macedonians, and the Romans, there was less variation in the style and taste of imitative art, through all the different states, that composed those empires, excepting only Egypt, than there is, not only between those of any two schools, but between those of any two successive ages of the same school, in modern Europe. During all that period also, a simplicity of dress, bordering upon negligence, and even approaching to nudity, universally prevailed; and any deviation from it was deemed a symptom of barbarism and corruption of manners unbecoming a man of rank and education *. Even the women, during that period, never attempted to exchange their native charms for the adscititious ornaments of dress: for, though the limbs and body were more or less concealed, as general custom or individual modesty occasionally required, they never were so disguised, but that the general forms of a human creature were "Sed tibi nec ferro placeat torquere capillos: Nec tua mordaci pumice crura teras. Ista jube faciant quorum Cybeleïa mater OVID. de Arte Amandi, l. i. v. 505. See also the Portraits upon Coins, &c. suffered to appear; which is not the case with a lady in stays and a hoop. About the age of Hadrian, the Roman women of fashion began to dress their hair in fantastic forms, wholly unlike those of nature; and when once disguise was thus mistaken for embellishment, there was no longer any principle to check the extravagancies of caprice. Consequently novelty and splendor were soon mistaken for grace and elegance; and as the contagion immediately communicated itself to the other sex, all simplicity of taste in dress and manners; and, with it, all purity of style in art were banished; and the licentious and operose barbarism of the Byzantine court gradually succeeded, 9. But though the passion for novelty has been the principal means of corrupting taste, it has also been a principal mean of polishing and perfecting it; for, imitation being in itself pleasing, men are always delighted with the best specimens, which they have seen of it, be they ever so bad; and it is merely the desire of something new, and not any preconceived ideas of something better, that urges them on to seek for improvement. As long as this rest ἅπαντα μεν του, τα οὕτως ασεμνα, δια μιαν εμφύεται τοις λογοις αιτίαν, δια το περι τας νοησεις καινοσπεδον αφ' ὧν γαρ ήμιν τ' αγαθα, σχεδόν απ' αυτων τέτων και τα κακαι modasi.-LONGIN. f. V. CHAP. III. Of Novelty. CHAP. Of Novelty. less desire of novelty can restrain itself, in imitative art, to the imitation of real genuine nature, it will only tend to real improvement, and limit its gratifications to varieties of perfection, and degrees of refinement: but, when it calls upon invention to usurp the place of imitation; or substitute to genuine, or merely embellished nature, nature sophisticated and corrupted by artificial habits, it immediately produces vice and extravagance of manner. Of the first, Michael Angelo was a memorable instance; and of the second, Bernini; both of whom were men of extraordinary genius and talents; but stimulated into manner and extravagance of opposite kinds by an insatiate desire of novelty and originality; which was, nevertheless, more, perhaps, the general vice of the times, in which they respectively lived, than their own peculiarly for we may observe that it operates, in modes and degrees nearly similar, in the contemporary Italian poets Ariosto and Marino; who were likewise men of uncommon talents; and who, in their respective faults and merits of this kind, nearly resemble the sculptors, with whom they respectively flourished. Ariosto, like Michael Angelo, is bold and spirited, but extravagant; while Marino, like Bernini, is redundant, smooth, and ingenious; but frivolous and affected. The merits and faults of the two first are certainly of a higher class; and the judgment of the public has, therefore, justly given them a higher rank and station in literature and art. Ariosto's extravagance is, indeed, of a very different kind from Michael Angelo's, whose genius more resembled Milton's; but still it is equally extravagance. 10. There is, however, another cause, besides the mere love of novelty, for that profusion of ornament, and unremitted affectation of elegance and splendor, which distinguish the decline or corruption of taste in every species of literary composition. When a language has been cultivated with success, and enriched with popular works in prose and verse, the brilliant and prominent passages of the most popular and admired of them become fixed in every person's memory; and are thus made the scale, by which they measure, and the criterion, by which they judge the general style of succeeding compositions; which are consequently condemned as flat, trite, or unpolished, if they do not uniformly stand this unfair test. If, on the contrary, they do, they necessarily display ornament, where the subject requires plainness and simplicity; and thus acquire that tawdry character, which, though generally abused, can alone secure attention; and authors can bear abuse, at all times, with much more patience than neglect. ОНАР. III. Of Novelty. СНАР. • III. Of Novelty. 11. It is observed by a great critic that men judge of the merits of a living writer by his worst performances; and of those of a dead one, by his best *: and this they do, not so much from any principle of malignity or envy, as because they remember only the most brilliant passages of the one; and consequently apply them, even mechanically and unintentionally, as the standards, by which they try the least brilliant of the others. Hence, an unvaried degree of brilliance and ornament being required, those, whose business it is to gratify public taste, strive to dress every part of their compositions alike; whether the subject admit of such dress and decoration or not and as they thus get into a habit of adorning their style by rule and system, instead of by taste and feeling, they adorn all parts of it ill; and are always either frivolous or extravagant : for, when just feeling and a discriminating tact cease to be the legitimate criteria of excellence, the caprices of novelty are freed from all restraint; and the fashion of the day becomes the only test of merit †. * Dr. Johnson, Pref. to Shakspeare. + Quæ non laudantur modo a plerisque, sed (quod pejus est) propter hoc ipsum, quod sunt prava laudantur: nam sermo rectus, et secundum naturam enunciatus, nibil habere ex ingenio videtur. QUINTILIANI, Instit. 1, ii, c. v, |