But most intelligent persons live in
towns, and take to the country for change and recreation.
The speaker in Browning's poem is an absolutely honest Philistine,
who does not know that every word he says spells artistic damnation.
He is disgusted with the situation of his house:
.... stuck like the horn of a bull
Just on a mountain-edge as bare as the creature's skull.
In other words the site is so magnificent that to-day expensive
hotels are built there, and people come from all over the world to
enjoy the view. In fact it is just this situation which Browning
admires in the poem _De Gustibus_.
What I love best in all the world
Is a castle, precipice-encurled,
In a gash of the wind-grieved Apennine.
But our man does not know what he _ought_ to say; he says simply
what he really thinks. The views of a sincere Philistine on natural
scenery, works of art, pieces of music, are interesting because they
are sincere. The conventional admiration may or may not be genuine.
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