A similar corruption of taste is manifest in literary productions. The Augustan age of Rome was of short duration, and was speedily succeeded by the age of Lu can and Seneca, in whose writings nature and simplicity are supplanted by artificial thoughts, and false orna ments. At this period, nothing was relished but bril liant strokes of fancy, and even Virgil and Cicero were thought to suffer in the comparison with these favou rites of the times. Quintilian endeavoured to stem the torrent, but with little success. He informs us, that he had been reproached as the enemy of Seneca, because he had advised to conjoin with the study of his works, the perusal of Cicero and Virgil. He adds, that Seneca was flattered with the preference given to his manner ; and that he endeavoured to establish his reputation at the expense of these great masters. The occasional merit of Seneca's matter, and the false brilliancy of his style, which abounds with what Quintilian calls dulcia vitia, contributed to produce this remarkable effect.
Another great cause that precipitates the downfal of every fine art, is despotism. True eloquence can flour ish only in a free government, where noble sentiments are cherished, and the finest energies of the mind are called forth by interesting sitwtions. The same may
be said of poetry, which is supported only by the en thusiasm of the soul ; and the same is in a great mea sure true of all the kindred arts. Augustus was indeed an absolute monarch, but his power was concealed, and rendered acceptable to the people. The tyranny of Ti berius, and his cruel successors, completely broke the elevated and independent spirit of the Romans, and by reducing them at last to abject slavery, completely ex tinguished every spark of genius. In Greece, the arts declined from the age of Alexander the Great, the xra of its subjection to the Macedonian yoke. During the period or their depression, the Greek writers were guil ty of the most puerile conceits; witness their verses composed in the form of an axe, of an egg, of wings, or an altar, and the like. Lucian is the only exception to the false taste of this degenerate age. Whether the taste of modern times is destined to undergo a similar degradation, it will be for posterity to decide. But let us indulge the pleasing hope, that should a genuine re lish for the fine arts be driven from the Continent by the baneful influence of despotic power, it may long find a safe asylum in our favoured country, under the protec tion of a free, an enlightened, and a generous people.
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