tion. PART II. Alexandria had gone among the mountains of CHAP. I. Sicily in quest of a Thyrsis or Amaryllis, they Of Imagina- would have felt the same disappointment, as a London cockney would feel, were he to seek, in the mountains of Scotland or Wales, for such shepherds and shepherdesses, as he sees in an opera. 64. It has of late been very much the fashion, both of the English, French, and German theatres, to bring examples of the most pure heroic love, and disinterested sentimental gallantry from the lowest ranks of society-from common soldiers, mendicants, robbers, and slaves; and not only the courtiers and cockneys of London and Paris, but scholars and philosophers of the first eminence gave themselves up to the delusion; which seems to be not entirely cured even by the events of the French revolution; though that has afforded such abundant instances of the delicate sentiments and tender affections of men, whose minds are neither exalted by situation, enlarged by science, nor refined by culture. Narrow sordid selfishness is, with few exceptions, the universal principle of action in such men; and not less so in the pursuits of love than in those of interest or ambition. Personal beauty, as an incentive to appetite, and a capacity for labour and household management, are the qualifications generally sought for: but as to any of that refinement of mental affection or sympathy of soul, which makes PART II. beauty an object of more pure and exalted love CHAP. II. in the higher orders of society, it is, as far as I of Imagina have been able to observe, wholly unknown. 65. But to return to the proper subjects of the present inquiry; the art of sculpture is a much fairer and more impartial representer of beauty of form, than that of painting: for, as it exhibits form only, it can employ no tricks of light and shade to give preternatural distinctness to one part, or preternatural obscurity to another; and, as its imitations are complete, as far as they extend, it can leave nothing to the imagination, nor employ any of that loose and sketchy brilliancy of execution, by which painting gives an artificial appearance of lightness to forms, which, in nature, always appear heavy. 66. The forms, therefore, both of the human figure and countenance, which are peculiarly appropriate to sculpture, are directly the reverse of the picturesque forms above mentioned; this art requiring exact symmetry in limb and body, muscles and joints strongly indicated, regular and distinct features, full lips, prominent brows, and curly elastic hair, more accurately divided into masses, than it ever is by the unassisted hand of nature. Even the most regular arrangement of it into locks and ringlets has been employed, tion. PART II. by the great sculptors of antiquity, with the happiest effect, which it never could be in painting. CHAP. II. Of Imagination. 67. This character, though very different from any that is commonly esteemed beautiful, has, nevertheless, peculiar beauties for eyes conversant with the fine productions of ancient sculpture: whence we may reasonably infer, that, had this art been as generally and familiarly understood, and as universally practised, as that of painting, we should probably have heard of a sculpturesque, as well as a picturesque*, since the one exists in nature just as much as the other; and my friend Mr. Price might have found another distinct character to occupy another place in his scale of taste, with those of the sublime, the picturesque and the beautiful. But the imitations of sculpture being less mannered, and more confined than those of painting; its process more slow and laborious; and its materials either costly, ponderous, or cumbersome; the taste for it We may write either picturesque and sculpturesque, from pictura and sculptura; or pictoresque and sculptoresque, from pictor and sculptor; the first signifying after the manner of the arts, and the latter after the manner of the artists. The former is, I believe, most usual; but as the word pictor has not been adopted into the English language, and the words pictura and sculptura, in an anglicised form, have, the latter appears to be the most proper; and, in words not yet natural, ized, propriety may be preferred to authority. has never been sufficiently diffused among the PART II. mass of mankind to give rise to a familiar metaphor. CHAP. 11. >Of Imagination. 68. One particular style of painting has, however, produced such a metaphor, and given its name to such descriptions of objects and such modes of composition, as appear to have some similitude to those, from which it sprang. Thus we often hear of grottesque figures, grottesque countenances, and grottesque groupes; which, according to the system of my friend above mentioned, should be such as bear somewhat of the same relation to the picturesque, as he supposes the picturesque to bear to the beautiful: for the grottesque is certainly, a degree or two at least, further removed from the insipid smoothness and regularity of beauty, than he supposes the pic. turesque to be. In tracing, however, the word to its source, we find that grottesque means after the manner of grottos, as picturesque means after the manner of painters. The one is just as much a separate character as the other. 69. Indeed, if my friend will attentively look around him, his sagacity will readily discover other distinct characters of the same kind, many which he may employ, in any future editions of his work, to season the insipidity of beauty to any extent that pleases him; and thus give it such CHAP. II. tion. PART II. various modes and degrees of relish, as must suit every appetite. A few of these, I shall Of Imagina- here point out, as concisely as possible; leaving the task of describing them more accurately, or applying them more systematically, to him, or any other person more competent than myself. 70. Ruined buildings, with fragments of sculptured walls and broken columns, the mouldering remnants of obsolete taste and fallen magnificence, afford pleasure to every learned beholder, imperceptible to the ignorant, and wholly independent of their real beauty, or the pleasing impressions, which they make on the organs of sight; more especially when discovered in countries of ancient celebrity, renowned in history for learning, arts, or empire. The mind is led by the view of them into the most pleasing trains of ideas; and the whole scenery around receives an accessory character; which is commonly called classical; as the ideas, which it excites, associate themselves with those, which the mind has previously received from the writings called classic. 71. There is another species of scenery, in which every object is wild, abrupt, and fantastic; -in which endless intricacies discover, at every turn, something new and unexpected; so that we are at once amused and surprised, and curi |