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climates than man himself. In making the obi
Se;-vation, he was not, however, disposed to agree
with the continental philosophers, that this dif-
ference, arising from climate, at all narrowed the
powers of the mind, though it influenced the
choice of objects of taste. For whatever tends
to make the mind more familiar with one class of
agreeable sensations than another, Will, undoubt-
edly, contribute to form the cause of that prefer-
ence for particular qualities in objects by which
the characteristics of the taste of different nations
is discriminated. Although, of all the general
circumstances which modify the opinions of man-
kind, climate is,'perhaps, the most permanent,
it does not, therefore, follow that, because the cli-
mate of France or Italy induces the inhabitants to
prefer, in works of art, certain qualities of the
excellence of which the people of England are
not so sensible, the climate of Great Britain
does not, in like manner, lead the inhabitants
to discover other qualities equally valuable as
sources of enjoyment. Thus, in sculpture for
example, it would seem that in naked figures the
inhabitants of a cold climate can inever hope to
attain that degree of eminence which we see ex: