Elements of CriticismGraphic Arts Books, 2021 M11 16 - 646 pages Elements of Criticism (1762) is a philosophical work by Henry Home, Lord Kames. Published at the height of his career as a leading legal and cultural figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, Elements of Criticism has been credited as a crucial academic work in the development of modern English literary studies. “The science of criticism tends to improve the heart not less than the understanding...A just taste in the fine arts, by sweetening and harmonizing the temper, is a strong antidote to the turbulence of passion and violence of pursuit. Elegance of taste procures to a man so much enjoyment at home, or easily within reach, that in order to be occupied, he is, in youth, under no temptation to precipitate into hunting, gaming, drinking; nor, in middle age, to deliver himself over to ambition; nor, in old age, to avarice.” Although he is largely unheard of today, Henry Home was an integral figure in the elevation of the art of literary criticism as a subject in universities around Britain and the world. His central thesis is that criticism itself stems from the senses and directly relates to humanity’s capacity for reason. Through art, Home believed, humanity could live both morally and in harmony with the natural world, thereby creating a civilization rooted in virtue and creativity. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Henry Home, Lord Kames’ Elements of Criticism is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers. |
From inside the book
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... proper care, greatly improved. In this respect, a taste in the fine arts goes hand in hand with the moral sense, to which indeed it is nearly allied. Both of them discover what is right and what is wrong. Fashion, temper, and education ...
... proper, elegant, and ornamental, in writing or painting, in architecture or gardening, is a fine preparation for discerning what is beautiful, just, elegant, or magnanimous, in character and behaviour. To the man who has acquired a ...
... proper, such as may express any undetermined number of parts less than the whole. This he thinks is signified by the title he has chosen, viz. ELEMENTS OF CRITICISM. I PERCEPTIONS AND IDEAS IN A TRAIN A man while. 1. See the Appendix ...
... proper language an emotion. But if such feeling, by reiterated views of the object, become sufficiently strong to raise desire, it is no longer termed an emotion, but a passion. The same holds in all the other passions. The painful ...
... proper objects upon which to exert this emotion. Spumantemque dari, pecora inter inertia, votis Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem. —Æneid. iv. 158 Non altramente 'il tauro, oue l' irriti Geloso amor con stimoli pungenti ...
Contents
BEAUTY | |
GRANDEUR AND SUBLIMITY | |
MOTION AND FORCE | |
NOVELTY AND THE UNEXPECTED APPEARANCE OF OBJECTS | |
RISIBLE OBJECTS | |
CUSTOM AND HABIT | |
EXTERNAL SIGNS OF EMOTIONS AND PASSIONS | |
SENTIMENTS | |
LANGUAGE OF PASSION | |
BEAUTY OF LANGUAGE | |
VOLUME III | |
COMPARISONS | |
FIGURES | |
RESEMBLANCE AND CONTRAST | |
OF UNIFORMITY AND VARIETY | |
VOLUME II | |
CONGRUITY AND PROPRIETY | |
OF DIGNITY AND MEANNESS | |
RIDICULE | |
XIII | |
NARRATION AND DESCRIPTION | |
EPIC AND DRAMATIC COMPOSITIONS | |
THE THREE UNITIES | |
GARDENING AND ARCHITECTURE | |
STANDARD OF TASTE | |