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ELEMENTS

OF

CRITICISM.

BY

HENRY HOME OF KAMES,

ONE OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF JUSTICIARY IN SCOTLAND.

REVISED, WITH OMISSIONS, ADDITIONS, AND A NEW ANALYSIS.

EDITED

BY REV. JAMES R. BOYD,

AUTHOR OF ELEMENTS OF RHETORIC, ECLECTTO MORAL PHILOSOPHY,
EDITOR OF ENGLISH POETS WITH NOTES, ETC.

NEW YORK:

A. S. BARNES & BURR, 51 & 53 JOHN STREET.

SOLD BY BOOKSELLERS, GENERALLY, THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES.

1863.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855,

BY A. S. BARNES & CO.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.

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PREFACE,

BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

THE work of LORD KAMES, on Criticism, was first published in 1761, and dedicated to George III., then King of Great Britain. The royal patronage was solicited in its behalf, on the ground that it treats of the Fine Arts, which exert a beneficial influence in society, and that it attempts to form a standard of taste, by unfolding those principles that ought to govern the taste of every individual.

In showing the importance of such an attempt, he says: "It is rare to find one born with such delicacy of feeling, as not to need instruction: it is equally rare to find one so low in feeling, as not to be capable of instruction. And yet, to refine our taste with respect to beauties of art or of nature, is scarce endeavored in any seminary of learning; a lamentable defect, considering how early in life taste is susceptible of culture, and how difficult to reform it if unhappily perverted. To furnish materials for supplying that defect, was an additional motive for the present undertaking."

To Lord Kames we are greatly indebted for calling public attention to this subject, and for preparing a work that has long occupied a place in the colleges and academies of our own land. There seems to be no other work, even at this date, that is fitted to supply its place, nor, without great disadvantage to the cause of education, can it be laid aside; and yet, neither in its original form, nor with such additions as have been made, in this country, to the original work, is it free from some grave objections,

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