Duff, William (1732-1815)

An Essay on Original Genius

London

Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly

1767

"Fancy, if not regulated by the dictates of impartial Judgment, is apt to mislead the mind and to throw glaring colours on objects that possess no intrinsic excellence."

As true Taste is founded on Imagination, to which it owes all its refinement and elegance; so a false and depraved Taste is often derived from the same cause. Fancy, if not regulated by the dictates of impartial Judgment, is apt to mislead the mind and to throw glaring colours on objects that possess no intrinsic excellence. By this means it happens, that though the principles of a just Taste are implanted in the mind of every man of Genius, yet, by a neglect of proper cultivation, or too great an indulgence of the extravagant ramblings of Fancy, those principles are vitiated, and Taste becomes sometimes INCORRECT, and sometimes INDELICATE. The only method left in such a case, is to compare the sensations of Taste with the objects that produced them, and to correct the errors of this sense by an appeal to the dictates of Reason, in the points where its authority is legitimate; by which means Taste may attain JUSTNESS and ACCURACY, as by the former exercise it may acquire SENSIBILITY and REFINEMENT, in those minds where its principles are implanted in any considerable degree.
(pp. 68-9)

Uncategorized::Colors

C-H Lion

2 entries in ESTC (1767).

Text from William Duff, An Essay on Original Genius; and its Various Modes of Exertion in Philosophy and the Fine Arts, Particularly in Poetry (London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, 1767). <Link to ESTC>

07/01/2013