INTRODUCTION


Since the early nineteenth century it has been known that Frances
Reynolds, the sister of Sir Joshua, was the author of an essay on
taste, which she had printed but did not publish. Yet persistent
search failed to turn up a single copy. It remained one of those lost
pieces which every research scholar hoped someday to discover.

In 1935 it appeared that the search was over. Among some manuscripts
of Mrs. Thrale-Piozzi, long hidden in Wales, was found a printed copy
of an anonymous _Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Taste, and of
the Origin of Our Ideas of Beauty_, which seemed to be the lost essay.
The date was correct; the _Enquiry_ was dedicated to Mrs. Montagu; it
contained a quotation from Dr. Johnson; and, best of all, there was
attached to the pamphlet a copy (in an unidentified handwriting) of
Johnson's well-known letter to Miss Reynolds concerning her essay.

Only one thing stood squarely in the way of the identification. James
Northcote in his _Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds_, published in 1818 (II,
116-19), after describing Johnson's connection with the manuscript,
gives two pages of short excerpts. Most of the quotations are general
statements such as "Dress is the strong indication of the moral
character" or "The fine arts comprehend all that is excellent in the
moral system, and, at the same time, open every path that tends to the
corruption of moral excellence." Unfortunately none of these excerpts
appears directly in the _Enquiry_. Although some of the ideas are
similar, the wording and specific details are different. By no stretch
of the imagination could they be considered to come from the same
piece. Thus Northcote blocked the solution of the mystery for nearly