What I found interesting while reading Of the Standard Taste was how he has variations to define what it means to have a taste. Taste isn’t really what people would say to talk about what he is referring to. This feels like it’s showing how the word isn’t exactly dying out of normal English usage but rather losing it’s earlier meaning. I found it interesting seeing how he says everything can have a taste and that anybody can come to that stance. A quote that stood out to me was “He not only perceives the beauties and defects of each
part, but marks the distinguishing species of each quality, and
assigns it suitable praise or blame.” (Page 11) I thought this was interesting because what he is saying is yes there are things that have beauty and good taste but they still can be bad and distasteful. Also that even with those qualities it is up to the man or person to decide it for them and this sounds like its mostly up to someone else to determine the taste of someone or something. I guess a question I have is can everything ultimately have beauty and taste or is it a concept dependent on man?


