F5^
 

 
 -
 
 A 
 
 DIALOGUE 
 
 ON 
 THE DISTINCT CHARACTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 The Picturesque and the Beautiful. 
 
 BY 
 
 UVEDALE PRICE, ESQ.
 
 . 
 

 
 A 
 
 DIALOGUE 
 
 ON 
 
 THE DISTINCT CHARACTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 The Picturesque and the Beautiful. 
 
 IN ANSWER TO THE 
 
 OBJECTIONS OF MR. KNIGHT. 
 
 PREFACED BY 
 
 An Introductory ESSAY on BEAUTY; 
 
 WITH 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 ON THE IDEAS OF 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds X Mr. Burke, 
 
 UPON THAT SUBJECT. 
 
 BY WED ALE PRICE, ES2. 
 
 PRINTED BY D. WALKER; 
 FOR J. ROBSON, NEW BOND -STREET, LONDON. 
 
 = 1801 =

 
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 YT has often occurred to me fmce I pub- 
 lifhed my Eflay on the Piclurefque, 
 that, in order to underftand thoroughly the 
 diftinclion I have endeavoured to eftablifh, 
 the reader fhould previoufly be acquainted 
 with that which Mr. Burke has fo admirably 
 pointed out and illuftrated, between the 
 Sublime and Beautiful. At firfl fight, it 
 may appear prefumptuous in me to fuppofe, 
 that my Eflay is likely to be more familiarly 
 known than Mr. Burke's; but a new pub- 
 lication is often more generally read at the 
 time, than an old one of infinitely greater 
 
 excel-
 
 C 1 3 
 
 excellence. On that ground, I may, per- 
 haps, be allowed to give a Ihort abridgment 
 of Mr. Burke's fyftem, as far as it relates 
 to the Sublime and Beautiful in vifible ob- 
 jecls, with which I am chiefly concerned. 
 Such an account, though perfectly ufelefs 
 to thofe who have read the original Efiay 
 with attention, may give fome idea of its 
 general tendency to thofe who have never 
 read it, and induce them to confult the work 
 itfelf ; and may alfo ferve to recal its lead- 
 ing principles to thofe who have only given 
 it a curfory reading. 
 
 The two great divifions on which Mr. 
 Burke's fyflem is founded, are Self-pre- 
 fervation, and Society ; the ends of one or 
 other of which, he obferves, all our paffions 
 are calculated to anfwer. The paffions 
 which concern felf-prefervation, turn moftly 
 on pain and danger, and they are the moft 
 powerful of all the paffions : whatever, there- 
 fore,
 
 C D 
 
 fore, is fitted in any way to excite the ideas 
 of pain and danger that is to fay, whatever 
 is in any fort terrible, or converfant about 
 terrible objects is a fourceofthe fublime; 
 that is, it is productive of the ftrongeft emo- 
 tions the mind is capable of feeling. The 
 paflion caufed by the great or fublime in 
 nature, when thofe caufes operate moft 
 powerfully, is aftonifhment; and aftonifh- 
 ment is that (late of the foul, in which all 
 its motions are fufpended with fome degree 
 of horror. This is the effect of the fublime 
 in its higheft degree : the inferior effects are 
 admiration, reverence, and refpect. Mr. 
 Burke then goes through the principal 
 caufes of the fublime obfcurity, power, 
 all general privations, as vacuity, darknefs, 
 folitude, filence ; then confiders greatnefs of 
 dimenfion, infinity; the artificial infinite, as 
 arifing from uniformity and fucceflion ; and, 
 luftly, the effects of colour, of light, and of 
 B 2 its
 
 r I* 3 
 
 its oppofite darknefs, in producing the fub- 
 lime. If even the bare enumeration of thefe 
 caufes of our firongeft emotions has fome- 
 thing finking in it, what muft they be, when 
 fet forth and illuftrated by a writer of the 
 mod fplendid and poetical imagination, that 
 ever adorned this, or, perhaps, any other, 
 country. 
 
 The other head under which Mr. Burke 
 claffes the paflions, that of Society, he di- 
 vides into two forts the fociety of the 
 fexes, which anfwers the purpofes of propa- 
 gation ; and that more general fociety which 
 we have with men and with animals, and 
 which we may in fome fort be faid to have 
 with the inanimate world. The object of 
 the mixed paflion, which we call love, is the 
 beauty of the fez. Men are carried to the 
 fex in general, as it is the fex, and by the 
 common law of nature; but they are at- 
 tached to particulars by perfonal beauty. 
 
 I call
 
 C 13 3 
 
 I call beauty (Mr. Burke then adds,) ajo- 
 cial quality; for where women and men, 
 and not only they, but when other animals, 
 give us a fenfe of joy and pleafure in be- 
 holding them, (and there are many that do 
 fo,) they infpire us with fentiments of ten- 
 dernefs and affection towards their perfons : 
 we like to have them near us, and we enter 
 willingly into a kind of relation with them, 
 unlefs we fhould have ftrong reafons to the 
 contrary. This very juft and natural dif- 
 tinclion between the mixed paffion of love 
 which relates to the fex, and that perfectly 
 unmixed love and tendernefs which is uni- 
 verfally the effect of beauty, muft be con- 
 flantly kept in the reader's mind, when he 
 is confidering this part of Mr. Burke's fyf- 
 tem; according to which, he applies the 
 name of Beauty to fuch qualities as induce in 
 us a fenfe of tendernefs and affection, or 
 fome other paffion the moft nearly refem- 
 bling thefe. 
 
 B 3 Mr.
 
 C H 1 
 
 Mr. Burke afterwards takes a review of 
 the opinions that have been entertained of 
 Beauty, and points out the impropriety of 
 applying that term to virtue, or any of the 
 feverer, or fublimer, qualities of the mind ; 
 and alfo (hews, that it does not confift in pro- 
 portion, in perfection, or in fitnefs or utility : 
 he then examines in what it really confifts, 
 and what are its qualities. Of thefe qualities, 
 I (hall merely give the enumeration, and (hall 
 do what will be moft fatisfaclory, by copy- 
 ing Mr. Burke's own comparifon of them 
 with the qualities of the fublime. Sublime 
 objects are vaft in their dimenfions ; beau- 
 tiful ones comparatively fmall : beauty 
 fhould be fmooth and polifhed ; the great, 
 rugged and negligent : beauty mould (him 
 the right line, yet deviate from it infenfi- 
 bly : the great in many cafes loves the right 
 line, and when it deviates, makes a ftrong 
 deviation: beauty, fhould not be obfcure; 
 the great ought to be dark and gloomy: 
 
 beauty
 
 C '5 3 
 
 beauty fliould be light and delicate; the 
 great ought to be folid, and even maflive. 
 
 This is the fkeleton of Mr. Burke's fyf- 
 tem $f the fublime and beautiful, and of the 
 diftinclion between the two characters. As 
 far as I have been able to obferve, his prin- 
 ciples of the fublime are more generally 
 admitted, than thofe of the beautiful ; which 
 may be eafily accounted for : we have been 
 ufed to confider the terrible as a principal 
 fource of the fublime in poetry, and, there- 
 fore, were prepared to have that principle 
 extended to the whole compafs of vifible 
 objects, and to have it founded on the great 
 bafis of felf- prefer vation : but with refpecl 
 to the beautiful, we had not the fame pre- 
 paration ; and, as we have been accuftomed 
 to apply the term in a very vague and li- 
 centious manner, his attempt to reftrain the 
 fenfe within more exact: and narrow bounds, 
 has not, I imagine, been fo favourably re- 
 B 4 ceived.
 
 t 4* a 
 
 ceived. If fuch were the cafe in this coun- 
 try, his ideas of the beautiful were lefs likely 
 to be adopted in France, as the word beau, 
 from its being fo particularly oppof^d to 
 joli, almoft always, I believe, indicates, that 
 the object is comparatively large; whereas 
 it is one part of Mr. Burke's fyftem, that 
 beautiful objects are comparatively fmall. 
 Some of his other qualities of beauty have 
 been objected to by his own countrymen ; 
 and altogether, as I conceive, his idea of 
 beauty has been thought too confined. Now, 
 as I have introduced a third diftinct cha- 
 racter, that of the Picturefque, I am more 
 interefled than Mr. Burke himfelf could be, 
 to {hew that his idea of the beautiful is not 
 too limited ; for when three feparate cha- 
 radlers are to be diftinguifhed from each 
 other, each of them muft of courfe be kept 
 within ftricter bounds. 
 
 In order to examine how far the idea of 
 
 beauty
 
 C '7 D 
 
 beauty may be limited, the firft enquiry 
 will be, whether in thofe times when beauty 
 of form was molt particularly attended to, 
 we can trace any idea of the beautiful as 
 feparate from all other characters. I think 
 it clearly appears, that, although beauty of 
 the higheft kind was attributed to all the 
 fuperior GodclefTes, and that the ancient 
 artifts endeavoured to exprefs it in their re- 
 prefentations of them, yet the beauty of 
 Venus, if not more perfect, was at leaft 
 without the fmalleft tinge of any other cha- 
 racter; whereas Juno, Pallas, Diana, and 
 the other Goddefies had a mixture of awful 
 majefty, of the feverity of wifdom, of war- 
 like valour, or of rigid chaftity. Thefe, in- 
 deed, were additions to beauty, but one may 
 properly fay, that in this cafe, additio probat 
 rtiinorem : and what particularly ftrengthens 
 Mr. Burke's fyftem is, that the effects which 
 all fuch additions produce, are oppofite to 
 
 thofe
 
 n is 3 
 
 thofe of beauty. The effecl of beauty, as 
 
 Mr. Burke has fo well pointed out, whether 
 
 in the human fpecies, in animals, or even 
 
 in inanimate objecls, is love, or fome paf- 
 
 jfion the moft nearly refembling it: now, 
 
 the effe<5l of majefty or feverity, even when 
 
 allied to beauty, is awe a fenfation very 
 
 oppofite to love ; and thence the poet, who 
 
 moft ftudied all that belongs to love and 
 
 beauty, has pronounced, that majefty and 
 
 love cannot dwell together. If love cannot 
 
 dwell with majefty, it certainly can as little 
 
 dwell with that feverity which arifes from 
 
 the more manly virtues and habits ; efpeci- 
 
 ally when accompanied with fomething ap- 
 
 proaching to manly ftrength and vigour of 
 
 body. Cupid, therefore, tells his mother 
 
 that he feels a dread of Minerva from her 
 
 terrible and mafculine appearance ;* and 
 
 fuch muft always be the effecl: of any mix- 
 
 i. Lucian, 19th Dial, of the Gods. 
 
 ture
 
 C 19 3 
 
 ture of the fublime with the beautiful ; but 
 the goddefs of love, is likewife the goddefs 
 
 of perfect unmixed beauty.* 
 
 In 
 
 * A doubt has been fuggefted, whether there is any autho- 
 rity for fuppofing that Venus was confidered by the ancients 
 .:s the goddefs of beauty; or whether beauty was confidered 
 by them as a pofitive quality, of which there could be an 
 abftrad perfonilication. It is very poflible that there may be 
 no paflage in which Venus is directly mentioned as the goddefs 
 of beauty; but, I may fafely aflcrt, that no figurative gene- 
 alogy was ever more plain and obvious, than that love is the 
 offspring of beauty ; and, therefore, the mother of love, whofe 
 attendants are the graces, muft virtually be confidered as 
 beauty perfonified and deified. The judgment of Paris, not- 
 withftanding the charge of bribery in the judge, is ftrongly in 
 favour of her fuperiority over the other goddcfles in point of 
 beauty; and we find in the poets, that women are compared 
 to Venus for beauty, as they arc to Minerva for excellence in 
 the arts, or to Diana for ftature. The ancients were fo much 
 in the habit of perfonifying abftrad qualities, that it would be 
 Angular indeed, if it mould appear that they had neglected 
 one, which they fo highly prized as that of beauty. Force and 
 ftrength arc not merely perfonified by fchylus in defcription, 
 but they are two of the dramatis perfona?, and a<5t no incon- 
 fiderable part in the Prometheus. That beauty was confidered 
 as a pofitive quality, and actually perfonified, may, I think, 
 be ihewn from a pafiage in one of the poems that go under 
 the name of Anacreon, and which were at leail written early 
 enough to be of fufficient authority iu the prefeut cafe. 
 
 Ai Mi0"OH TOV EfVTK 
 
 Iu KaXAe* v}fft}ux.a.. 
 
 Love, bound by the Mufes, and delivered over to Beauty, 
 
 is
 
 r; * 3 
 
 In point of beauty, fmgly confidered, the 
 female form has always had the preference ; 
 and to that Mr. Burke' s principles of beauty 
 moft ftriclly apply : it may only be doubted 
 whether he be right in faying, without any 
 reftriclion, that beautiful objects are com- 
 paratively fmall. But, on the other hand, 
 there feems to be as little reafon for making 
 them comparatively large; for, we muft 
 naturally fuppofe, in the human figure 
 particularly, fome juft ftandard of height 
 and proportion; in which cafe, all who 
 poflefied the qualities of beauty, but were 
 above that ftandard, would, as far as fize is 
 concerned, begin to rife into grandeur; and 
 all below it, to fink into prettinefs beau^ 
 ty being the golden mean. It muft be own- 
 is a manifeft perfonifkation of thai quality: and if it flioulcl be 
 a fingle inftance, it will, on that account, be rather in favour 
 of what I have advanced ; for, I take it, that the reafon why 
 beauty was not in general perfonified as beauty, is, that it was 
 perfonified in a more auguft and fplendid manner under the 
 name and deity of Venus, or Aphrodite. 
 
 ed,
 
 I *i D 
 
 ed, however, that, like the French, the 
 more ancient Greeks appear to have confi- 
 dered large ftature as almoft a requifite of 
 beauty, not only in men, but in women: 
 this, I think, may have arifen from the very 
 high eftimation in which ftrength of body, 
 and, confequently, largenefs of ftature, was 
 held in thofe ancient times, when the words 
 which fignify beauty, and beautiful, were 
 firft made ufe of; and thence that com- 
 bined fenfe of the words may have remained, 
 when, from the high perfection and refine- 
 ment of the arts, a more juft and delicate 
 notion and reprefentation of beauty, fepa- 
 rate from ftrength and fize, had taken place. 
 I may here obferve, that the moft admired 
 ftatue of Venus now exifting, and the allow- 
 ed model of female beauty, is rather below 
 the common ftandard ; a circumftance which, 
 as far as it goes, feems to favour Mr. Burke's 
 idea, that beautiful obje6ts are comparatively 
 
 fmall.
 
 i: 22 j 
 
 fmall.* But, whatever may be the prevailing 
 opinion on that point, I think it is perfectly 
 clear, that his general principles of beauty 
 that fmoothnefs, gradual variation, delicacy 
 of make, tender colours, and fuch as infen- 
 fibly melt into each other are ftriclly ap- 
 plicable to female beauty ; fo much fo, that 
 not one of them can be changed or diminim- 
 ed, without a manifeft diminution of beauty. 
 
 The manner in which the ancients have 
 reprefented their male deities, will throw 
 
 * There is a paffage in Virgil which might be quoted in oppo- 
 iition to what I have juft obferved : it is where J^neas defcribes 
 the appearance of Venus to him, at the moment when he is 
 going to kill Helen 
 
 " Alma parens confeffa Deam, qualifque videri 
 
 " Ca"UcoHs et quanta folet." 
 
 This, however, feems to refer to the proportion of deities in 
 refpecl; to each other; for it is clear, from the paffage itfelf, that 
 this was an unufual manner of appearing, and that upon moft 
 occasions her ftature was no larger than that of women in gene- 
 ral. I may add, too, that it was a moment of great importance : 
 flie wi (lied to make an immediate and awful impreffion on 
 .flSneas, and to prevent him from doing a deed very unworthy 
 of a hero, and particularly of her fon. She was alfo to appear 
 on the fame theatre with Juno and Pallas, who, though invisible 
 to mortals in general, may be fuppofed to have been in their 
 own celeiiial forms, and their full flature. ' 
 
 filll
 
 C 23 3 
 
 ftill more light on their ideas of beauty as a 
 feparate character . The two moft beauti- 
 ful of their gods, Apollo and Bacchus, enjoy 
 perpetual youth; that is, they continue in 
 the ftate in which the male fex is moft like 
 to the female ; they are reprefented without 
 beards ; their limbs fmooth and round, and 
 without any marked articulation of the muf- 
 cles; in Bacchus, particularly, the turn of 
 the limbs, and the ftyle of face is perfectly 
 female ; and his extreme beauty and femi- 
 nine appearance are mentioned at the fame 
 time by the poets, as connected with each 
 other. 
 
 Tu formosissimus alto 
 
 Conspiceris coelo ; tibi, cum sine cornibus adstas 
 I'irginnim caput est.* 
 
 On the other hand, their awful and terrible 
 
 * There were myftic representations of many deities, totally 
 different from the characters of them in the poets, and from 
 the ftatues which accord with their defcriptions. Not only 
 Bacchus, but even Venus, "was reprcfented with a beard. Her 
 ftatue at Paphos, which is laid to be the original Venus, was 
 an androgynous figure, with a long beard. With fuch repre- 
 fentations, however, I have no more concern, than with the 
 form of any Egyptian hieroglyphic. 
 
 deities,
 
 C H 1 
 
 deities, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, and Mars, 
 are reprefented in the full ftrength of man- 
 hood, or of more advanced maturity. 
 
 It may be faid, perhaps, that in the fineft 
 ftatue of Apollo which has been preferved, 
 dignity is intimately connected with beauty ; 
 and that the mixture has produced the 
 liigheft idea of male beauty, of which we 
 have any model. This is perfectly true, and 
 feems to contradict what I have before ob- 
 ferved : but, if inftead of a few ftatues faved 
 from the general wreck of ancient fculpture, 
 we could at once view and compare with 
 each other all the different mafter-pieces 
 which once exifted at the fame period, we 
 fhould probably find the niceft fhades of 
 diftinction, not only between different dei- 
 ties, but between the different characters 
 of the fame deity.* The Belvidere Apollo 
 
 is 
 
 * There cannot be a ftronger inftance of fuch a nice diftinc- 
 t'ron, than that of the three famous flatues of Scopas, repre- 
 fenting three different names of Cupid that is, three fhades or 
 
 difiin&ions
 
 C 25 D 
 
 is in the acl of flaying the Python ; he is the 
 deftroying, not the creating power " Se- 
 " vere in youthful beauty :" there may have 
 been other equally perfect ftatues of him, as 
 the god of poetry and mufic ; he may have 
 been reprefented in the enthufiafm of thofe 
 divine arts, or in the fofter emotions of love, 
 a pailion to which none of the deities was 
 more fubjecl ; and certainly the expreflion 
 of rapture and tendernefs is more congenial 
 to beauty, than that of anger, however dig- 
 nified. In fuch reprefentations of him, his 
 beauty might have borne the fame rela- 
 tion to that of the flatue we poflefs, as the 
 beauty of the Gnidian Venus did, to differ- 
 ent ftatues of Juno or Minerva; that is, 
 would have had lefs of awful and fevere 
 dignity, and more of lovelinefs. We may 
 be fure, alfo, that beauty, and not dignity, 
 
 diftiuctions of the paflion of Love. The names are Epwj, I/xfpos, 
 IloOoj. There probably are no terms that exadly correfpond 
 with thHe, in any other language. 
 
 c was
 
 C 26 3 
 
 was the prevailing character of the Apollo : 
 the higheft idea of dignity is found only in 
 the father of gods and men, in the Jupiter 
 of Phidias, or Lyfippus, of Homer or Virgil ; 
 whether he be reprefented in the terrible, or 
 the beneficent exercife of his power ; as bend- 
 ing his awful brow and fhaking the heavens 
 with his nod; or with that mild counte- 
 nance by which he diffufes ferenity through 
 all nature. This feems to fhew that dig- 
 nity, though it may be united with youth, 
 more properly belongs to maturer age ; and 
 that may be one reafon why the addition of 
 it takes off, in fome degree, from the ge- 
 nuine character and effect of beauty.* 
 No one can doubt that youth is the feafon 
 
 * The following paflage fliews the opinion of the ancients on 
 this fubject. *' Diligeutia ac decor in Pol^cleto, cui quanquam 
 ' a plerifque tribuatur palma, tamen ne nihil detrahatur, de- 
 ' effe pondus putant. Nam ut humanae forma? decorem ad- 
 ' diderit fupra verum, ita non explevifle deoruin authoritatem 
 ' videtur. Quin setatem quoque graviorem vicletur refugifle, 
 ' nihil aufus praeter leves genas." Quint. Inft. lib. xii. cap. 10. 
 
 Of
 
 c s 7 n 
 
 of beauty : it is then that the lines are moft 
 flowing, the frame rnoft delicate ; that the 
 Ikin has its moft perfecl fmoothnefs and 
 clearnefs; and every part that gradual va- 
 riation, which, at a more advanced period, 
 gives way to ftronger marked lines and 
 angular forms, and ends in wrinkles and 
 decay : the fame holds good in all animals, 
 and not lefs in the vegetable world. On this 
 laft point, Mr. Burke has touched more 
 (lightly ; and therefore I fhall dwell fome- 
 what longer upon it, as I think it will tend 
 to illuftrate the whole fubjeft. 
 
 Almoft all trees, except the pointed tribe 
 of firs, difplay, when in health and vigour, 
 the greateft variety of undulating forms in 
 their general outline : all groups of them 
 do the fame ; and large continued mafles of 
 them mark the inequalities of the ground 
 they Hand upon, (however broken and a- 
 brupt the ground itfelf may be) by the fame 
 
 c 2 graceful
 
 C 28 3 
 
 graceful undulations. As this is the general 
 character of all fcenery where there is much 
 natural wood in a flourifhing ftate, and as 
 trees and woods form the principal outlines 
 in all pleafmg fcenery, it furely is a fuffi- 
 cient reafon for a ftrong inherent love of 
 undulating lines in the general face of 
 nature. Such a flyle of fcenery, chiefly 
 prevails in fituations free from violent 
 winds, and where the fertility of the foil 
 correfponds with the ideas imprefled by the 
 general afpecl:: but where the country is 
 rocky and barren, and fubject to ftorms and 
 hurricanes, there the forms of the trees, 
 like thofe of the rocks on which they grow, 
 are ufually abrupt and broken ; and exhibit 
 marks of fudden violence, or premature decay. 
 The trees in the pictures of Claude, who 
 fludied what was foft and beautiful in na- 
 ture, are almoft all of the firft kind ; while 
 thofe of Salvator Rofa, who chofe the 
 
 wildeft
 
 C 29 D 
 
 wildeft and mod favage views, are as ge- 
 nerally of the fecond : their forms are in- 
 deed fo fharp and broken, and they are 
 often fo deftitute of foliage, that a perfon 
 ufed only to the full and fwelling outlines of 
 rich vegetation, would fcarcely know them 
 to be trees. Thefe laft, however, have 
 frequently a grand, generally a ftriking and 
 peculiar character ; but when we call fuch 
 broken, difeafed and decaying forms, (and, 
 I may add, the colours that accompany 
 them) beautiful, either in reality or imita- 
 tion, we clearly fpeak in direct oppofition 
 to nature ; for it is juft as unnatural to call 
 an old, decaying, leaflefs tree beautiful, as 
 to call a withered, bald, old man or woman, 
 by that moft ill-applied term. 
 
 If, from trees, we go to thofe vegetable 
 productions which nature feems to have 
 taken moft pleafure in adorning, we fliall 
 perceive that the fame undulation prevails. 
 
 c 3 Fruit
 
 t: s 3 
 
 Fruit and flowers are allowed to be the 
 moft beautiful of vegetable productions ; 
 the forms of moft kinds of fruit are round, 
 or oval, or at leaft are compofed of f welling 
 curves without any angles; as they ripen, 
 their form and colour gradually attain their 
 perfection; and, no one doubts, that when 
 ripe, that is, when in their moft perfect ftate, 
 they are moft beautiful to the eye. In flow- 
 ers, the extremities of the leaves are cut into 
 an infinite diverfity of fhapes, many of which 
 are ftrongly angular, and diftinguifhed (as fi- 
 milar leaves in trees are,) by the terms fawed, 
 and jagged ; but the general form of the moft 
 admired among them, prefents a fwelling out- 
 line : in them nature feems to act on a final], 
 as fhe does in trees on a large fcale; for 
 thofe trees, the particular leaves of which 
 are divided into angles, have often as varied 
 undulations in their general outline, as moft 
 others of the deciduous forts. 
 
 I may
 
 C si 3 
 
 I may here obferve, that there is as much 
 analogy as their different natures may be 
 conceived to afford, between the refpeclive 
 beauty of young trees in their different de- 
 grees of growth, oppofed to thofe which 
 have nearly attained their full fize, and that 
 of children of different ages, compared with 
 the form of men and women when it has ac- 
 quired its full perfection. In the early ftate 
 of many trees, there are particular circum- 
 fiances of beauty which they afterwards lofe : 
 fuch, for inftance, as the fmoothnefs of their 
 bark ; but in point of form, the very circum- 
 flance of rapid growth, though extremely 
 pleafing in other refpecls, often produces a 
 comparatively ftraggling outline; whereas 
 in full-grown trees, the fhoots being lefs lux- 
 uriant, and more connected with each other, 
 the whole has a greater fulncfs of form, a 
 more gradual variation in the general out- 
 line, and a richer and more cluttering effecl 
 
 04, in
 
 C 3 2 3 
 
 in the different parts. Much in the fame 
 manner, children, and the unformed youth 
 of both fexes, have generally more delicate 
 {kins and complexions, than when their 
 growth is completed ; but the limbs, during 
 that ftate of increafe, have feldom that roimd- 
 nefs, that juft fymmetry and connection with 
 each other, fo neceflary to perfecl beauty. 
 
 I muft own it ftrikes me, that if there be 
 any one pofition on this fubjec~l likely to be 
 generally admitted, it is, that each produc- 
 tion of nature is mojl beautiful in that par- 
 ticular jlate, in which Jhe may be faid to 
 have brought it to that point of perfection, 
 before which her work would have appeared 
 incomplete and unfini/bed, and after it would 
 feem to be tending, however gradually, to- 
 wards decay. It may, perhaps, be doubted, 
 how far the complete ftate, whether in ani- 
 mals or vegetables, is the precife moment of 
 beauty; fome may think it a little before 
 
 the
 
 C 33 H 
 
 the perfect expanfion, though none after; 
 but in my opinion, 
 
 Crude is the bud, and stale the fading flower. 
 On Venus' breast the full-expanded rose, 
 Alone, with all its sweets, and all its richness glows. 
 
 This ft ate of full expanfion and comple- 
 tion in the works of nature, may, I think, be 
 admitted as a general criterion ; and from ob- 
 ferving the qualities which are more com- 
 monly found in objects during that ftate, we 
 fureiy may be faid to obtain more juft and 
 rational ideas of the qualities and principles 
 of beauty, than from any other fource ; and 
 thofe, I believe, Mr. Burke has very ac- 
 curately pointed out, though not on the 
 ground that I have taken.* But although 
 thefe qualities, more or lefs, exift in all 
 
 beautiful 
 
 * I have already had occafion, in foine iuftances, to differ 
 from Mr. Burke, but in none fo ftrongly (at leaft in appearance) 
 as in the prefent ; for he exprefsly fiates, that perfection is not 
 the caufe of beauty, and has an entire fedion on that particular 
 point : I imagine, however, that Mr. Burke was there confider- 
 jng the fubjeci with a different view; for it is clear that, as I 
 J have considered it, nothing can more exactly accord with his 
 general principles. Mr. Burke's aim throughout his Effay,
 
 L 34 3 
 
 beautiful objects, and though no objecl 
 can be beautiful that is totally deprived of 
 them, yet they Hill are only qualities or in- 
 gredients ; and beauty is a thing of much too 
 refined and delicate a nature to be made by 
 a receipt, or to be judged of with accuracy, 
 merely by an acquaintance with its general 
 qualities ; more efpecially with refpecl to 
 
 is to mew that love is the conftant effect of beauty; while 
 every thing that creates awe, or even refpect, is allied to 
 the fublime: he points out that the fublimer virtues, which 
 approach to mental perfection, are lefs engaging than the fofter 
 virtues; fome of which (as compafiion, for hirlance,) border 
 upon weaknefs. It is on this fame idea, as I conceive, that iu 
 the fection I allude to, -he fuppofes that there may be fome 
 kinds of bodily weakneffes and imperfections, more attractive, 
 and thence more conducive to beauty, than the abfolute ex- 
 emption from all defects 
 
 " The faultlefs monfter which the world ne'er faw." 
 I muft own, however, that there is, in my opinion, a very 
 efiential difference between the two cafes : it is undoubtedly 
 true, that there is an awful feverity in the higher virtues, and 
 in a perfect moral character exempt from all human frailty ; 
 but there is nothing fevere or awful in the frefh and tender 
 colours, and in the graceful form of youthful beauty, however 
 perfect, confidered in themfelves: the Antinous, and the Ve- 
 nus de Medicis, are only attractive; fo, probably, both in form 
 and colour, was the Venus of Apelles: and if the Belvidere 
 Apollo ftrikes us with a fort of awe, it is from the grandeur, not 
 from the beauty of his countenance and attitude. 
 
 form,
 
 L 35 3 
 
 form, and, above all, the human form. It 
 required a long feries of obfervations, to en- 
 able men to difcriminate amidft the general 
 mafs of beauty, what was in a pre-eminent, 
 and exquifite degree beautiful : this has been 
 done by men, who, in an age when all the 
 arts were in their higheft perfection, in the 
 happieft climate for producing beautiful 
 forms, and in a country where beauty in 
 either fex had almofl divine honours paid to 
 it, made thofe forms their peculiar ftudy, and 
 who, by means of the noble and durable art 
 of fculpture, have been able to embody their 
 ideas ; and, fortunately, fome few at leaft of 
 their tineft produdttons ftill remain. 
 
 By examining, then, the different antique 
 flatties, bu(is, gems, and coins; by compar- 
 ing the ideas which they prefent with thofe 
 of the poets, and with thofe alfo which are 
 exprefled in the works of the great matters 
 of the revived arts of painting and fculpture ; 
 
 and
 
 C 36 1 
 
 and all of them again with the exifting forms 
 of nature, I think it will appear, that there 
 is in the human form a character, which 
 may be pronounced flriclly and purely beau- 
 tiful: that by allying beauty with any of the 
 more fublime qualities, the refult will be 
 more awful and impofing, but lefs lovely 
 and engaging ; it may be a Juno, or a Pallas, 
 but no longer a Venus: and, it may not 
 be foreign to my prefent argument to men- 
 tion, that two of the moft celebrated flatues 
 of Juno and Minerva, were coloflal, whereas 
 the Gnidian Venus of Praxiteles, the moft 
 famous of any of the ftatues of that goddefs, 
 was of the natural fize.* 
 
 * Though no great argument can be drawn from the fize of 
 ftatues, which might be varied according to the fculptor's fancy, 
 yet I cannot help mentioning, that Paufanias. in defcribing a 
 fiatue of Diana (alfo by Praxiteles), obferves, that its ftature 
 exceeded that of the tailed woman. As the large ftature of 
 Diana is often remarked by the poets, this difference between 
 the ftatues of the two goddefies by the fame fculptor, feems to 
 ftew an attention to the fuppofed proportion of different deities. 
 Paufanias, lib. x. cap. 37. 
 
 But
 
 C 37 3 
 
 But if beauty fhould not be colofTal, fo 
 neither fhould it be diminutive in fize or 
 character : there feems to belong to the idea 
 of genuine beauty, a certain mild and grace- 
 ful dignity, as well as an exact fymmetry ; 
 and, therefore, when in nature the fcale is 
 below the common ftandard, and the cha- 
 racter wants that degree of elevation, we are 
 apt to call fuch objects pretty, rather than 
 beautiful ; juft as we call them fine, when in 
 the oppofite extreme. Again, when there 
 are any marked irregularities in the features 
 combined with the qualities of beauty, al- 
 though fuch combinations have often a wild 
 variety and playfulnefs, more attractive per- 
 haps than even beauty of a more pure and 
 unmixed kind, yet the difference is manifeft, 
 and the addition of the term pi6turefque to 
 that of beauty, moft accurately marks the 
 diftinction. 
 
 As the fame analogy, in a greater or lefs 
 
 degree,
 
 C 38 3 
 
 degree, prevails throughout all the produc- 
 tions of nature and of art, it poflibly may 
 not be too much to affirm, that the terms 
 which anfwer to beauty and beautiful in all 
 languages, however vaguely and licenti- 
 oufly employed in common ufe, yet, in their 
 uricl: and proper fenfe, muft have nearly the 
 fame meaning : they muft refer in general 
 to objects in their moft perfect, finifhed, and 
 flourifhing ftate; and among them, to thofe 
 particular combinations of form, which, from 
 attentive and enlightened obfervation and 
 experience, have been difcovered to be more 
 complete in thofe qualities, which are found 
 to conftitute beauty in general. 
 
 I muft here acknowledge, that the opi- 
 nion of Sir Jofhua Reynolds, in the laft 
 of his Letters inferted in the Idler, and 
 fince publiflied in his works, does not 
 coincide with that of Mr. Burke; but, 
 on the contrary, differs from it in fome 
 
 effential
 
 C 39 3 
 
 cflential points. 1 imagine Sir Jofhua's at- 
 tack (for fuch it is) was directed againft 
 Hogarth's Analyfis of Beauty, and in parti- 
 cular againft a very vulnerable part of it 
 the line of beauty; but as Mr. Burke adopt- 
 ed many of Hogarth's principles, though he 
 rejected the idea of any one line peculiarly 
 beautiful, he Hill is expofed to a ridicule, 
 which might not have been levelled againft 
 him. 
 
 It cannot be fuppofed, that in thefe firii 
 Eflays written for a periodical paper, the 
 ideas can be fo perfedtly digefted, as in his 
 later, and more ftudied, productions: ftill, 
 whatever comes from fuch a mind as his, 
 efpecially on fubje&s connected with his 
 own art, deferves the higheft attention ; and 
 although I feel great unwillingnefs to contro- 
 vert any opinions of a man, whofe memory 
 I fo much love and reverence, yet were I to 
 omit doing it, the weight of his authority 
 
 might
 
 C 4 1 
 
 might very juftly be brought againft me. As 
 his works are, or at leaft ought to be, in the 
 hands of every man who has the flighteft 
 pretenfion to tafte, it will be only necefiary 
 for me to mention thofe points which I wifh 
 to confider. 
 
 In this Letter, before he examines Ho- 
 garth's ideas of beauty, Sir Jofhua gives us 
 his own: thefe he founds on the great and 
 general ideas inherent in univerfal. nature, 
 which, according to the practice of the Ita- 
 lian painters, are to be diftinguifhed from 
 the accidental blemifhes that are continually 
 varying the furface of her works. This he 
 illuftrates by the leaves of a tree, of which, 
 though no two are exactly alike, yet the 
 general form is invariable ; and a naturalift, 
 after comparing many, felecls, as the painter 
 does, the moft beautiful, that is, the molt ge- 
 neral form. Nature, he goes on to fay, is 
 conftantly tending towards that determinate 
 
 form;
 
 C 4i D 
 
 form ; and it will be found that fheoftener pro- 
 duces perfect beauty than deformity, that is, 
 than deformity of any one kind : for inftance, 
 the line that forms the ridge of the nofe, is 
 beautiful when ftrait ; this is the central 
 form, which is oftener found than either con- 
 cave, convex, or any irregular form that 
 fhall be propofed. As we are, therefore, 
 more accuftomed to beauty than deformity, 
 we may conclude that to be the reafon why 
 we approve and admire it. 
 
 He then obferves, that whoever pretends 
 to defend the preference he gives to one 
 form rather than to another, as of a fwan 
 to a dove, by endeavouring to prove that 
 this more beautiful form proceeds from a 
 particular gradation of magnitude, undula- 
 tion of a curve, or direction of a line, or 
 whatever other conceit of his imagination 
 he fhall fix on as a criterion of form, will 
 be continually contradicting himfelf, and 
 
 find
 
 C & 3 
 
 find that nature will not be fubjecled to 
 fuch narrow rules. The moft general rea- 
 fon of preference is cuftom, which, in a 
 certain fenfe, makes white black, and black 
 white: it is cuftom, alone, determines our 
 preference of the colour of the Europeans 
 to the Ethiopians; and they, for the fame 
 reafon, prefer their own colour to ours. This 
 he illuftrates in a very ingenious manner, by 
 faying, that if one of their painters were to 
 paint the goddefs of beauty, nobody will 
 doubt that he would reprefent her black, 
 with thick lips, flat nofe, and woolly hair; 
 and he would a<5l very unnaturally, (adds 
 Sir Jofhua,) if he did not; for, by what 
 criterion will any one difpute the propriety 
 of his idea? we indeed fay, that the form 
 arid colour of the European is preferable to 
 that of the Ethiopian, but I know of no 
 other reafon we have for it, but that we are 
 more accuftomed to it. 
 
 After
 
 C 43 3 
 
 After obferving, that neither novelty nor 
 fitnefs can be faid to be caufes of beauty 
 (in which he and Mr. Burke agree,) he thus 
 makes a fort of recapitulation : " from what 
 " has been faid, it may be inferred that the 
 " works of nature, if we compare one fpe- 
 " cies with another, are all equally beauti- 
 " ful; and that preference is given from 
 " cuftom, or fome aflbciation of ideas ; 
 " and that in creatures of the fame fpecies, 
 " beauty is the medium or centre of all its 
 " various forms." 
 
 Such are Sir Jofhua Reynolds's opinions 
 on the fubjecl of beauty, and fuch his criti- 
 cifms on thofe of others. With relpedl to 
 the latter, I imagine that, though by un- 
 dulation of a curve, and direction of a line, 
 he may only allude to Hogarth's line of 
 beauty, yet by gradation of magnitude he 
 muft have meant nearly what Mr. Burke 
 calls gradual variation; and, indeed, it is 
 D 2 moft
 
 C 44 3 
 
 moft probable that his ridicule is pointed 
 againft the whole fyftem of diftincT:, vifible 
 qualities of beauty. 
 
 The only way in which one can hope to 
 vanquifh fuch an adverfary as Sir Jofhua, 
 is to oppofe him to himfelf his practice to 
 his theory 
 
 Ut nemo Ajacem poterit superare nisi Ajax, 
 
 Certainly no painter has made a more con- 
 flant and judicious ufe of the principle of 
 undulating lines, and gradual variation; and 
 the acknowledged grace and beauty of his 
 forms are the beft proofs of its excellence ; 
 but deprive his pictures, or thofe of Cor- 
 reggio or Guido, of that principle which per- 
 vades them, and you would rob them of 
 the charms to which they owe their greateft 
 reputation. It is true that undulation, gra- 
 dual variation, &c. like other general prin- 
 ciples, have been often abfurdly applied, 
 and that they will not in themfelves create 
 
 beauty ;
 
 [ 45 3 
 
 beauty; but, I think, it may fafely be laid 
 down as a maxim, and it is one, to which 
 in this difcuflion frequent reference may be 
 made that thofe qualities, without which a 
 character cannot exift, muft be eflential to 
 that character. 
 
 I may here obferve, that, although the me- 
 thod of confidering beauty as the central form, 
 and as being produced by attending only to 
 the great general ideas inherent in univerfal 
 nature, is a grander way of treating the fub- 
 ject; and though the difcri mi nations of Mr. 
 Burke may, in comparifon, appear minute ; 
 yet, after all, each object, or fet of objects, 
 according to their characters, muft be com- 
 pofed of qualities, the knowledge of which 
 is neceflary to a knowledge of their diftinct 
 characters. Such a method is more eafily 
 comprehended, than the more general and 
 abftract one which Sir Jolhua propofes ; and 
 when allied with it, is more likely to produce 
 
 D 3 a juft
 
 n 46 3 
 
 a juft eftimate of the character altogether, 
 than any other method fmgly. 
 
 Sir Jofhua remarks, that cuftom, though 
 not the caufe of beauty, is certainly the caufe 
 of our liking it ; and that if we were more 
 ufed to deformity than beauty, deformity 
 would lofe the idea now annexed to it, and 
 take that of beauty. If by being ufed to 
 deformity,* is meant a fuppofed cafe, that 
 the forms of vifible objects on this planet were 
 univerfally what we now call deformed, his 
 pofition is probably true; in that cafe, how- 
 ever, cuftom would only be another name 
 for nature : but on any other fuppofition, I 
 rather think, he has given to that fecond 
 nature cuftom, a power which only belongs 
 to nature itfelf; that is, to univerfal cuf- 
 tom. 
 
 It feems to me, that partial cuftom and 
 
 * In this place, I imagine Sir Jofhua ufes the word deformity 
 in its common acceptation ; in others, he ufes it for any devia- 
 tion from the central form. 
 
 habit,
 
 C 47 3 
 
 habit, are more employed in reconciling us 
 to defecls and deformities, than in abfo- 
 lutely converting them into beauties ; and 
 that, if in fome particular cafes they do 
 convert them into beauties, (as it is faid 
 that thofe who have the goitres, or fvvelling 
 in their throats, think that excrefcence be- 
 coming, and thofe who want it deformed,) 
 yet fuch a notion of beauty is confined to the 
 ignorant inhabitants of a few narrow diftricls. 
 The Ethiopians, indeed, and what are in 
 general called negroes, are much more nu- 
 merous ; and they probably prefer their own 
 form and colour to thofe of Europeans ; 
 but, as Sir Jofhua remarks, " the black and 
 " white nations muft, in refpecl of beauty, 
 " be confidered as of different kinds, or 
 " at lead as different fpecies of the fame 
 ' kind." 
 
 As this part of Sir Jofhua's Letter has 
 
 been thought to contain, not only a lively 
 
 D 4 and
 
 i 48 : 
 
 and ftriking illuftration of his own doclrines, 
 but like wife a refutation of thofe of Mr. 
 Burke, it is necefiary for me to difcufs it 
 more particularly, and to examine how far 
 it affects Mr. Burke's fyftem. It is clear, 
 that as the black and white nations may be 
 confidered as different fpecies, an Ethiopian 
 painter would with great propriety reprefent 
 the goddefs of beauty in the manner Sir 
 Jofhua has defcribed ; that is, with the 
 characleriftic marks of his diftincT: race : 
 but in other refpecls it is probable that the 
 painter would felecl fuch a model as a Eu- 
 ropean painter would felecl:, if employed to 
 paint an Ethiopian Venus ; her fkin black, 
 indeed, but of a clear jetty black 
 
 Such as in esteem 
 
 Prince Memnon's sister might beseem ; 
 
 her limbs round and fmooth, and without 
 any fharp angles or projections ; her eyes 
 of a clear transparent colour : in fhort, he 
 
 would
 
 C 49 3 
 
 would felecl a model, with all thofe qualities 
 of beauty which Mr. Burke has mentioned, 
 
 J 
 
 the peculiar marks of the fpecies only ex- 
 cepted. I will even go further, and, not- 
 with (land ing the very high authority of Sir 
 Jofhua, will venture to propofe ibme rea- 
 fons, why Loth the form, and the colour of 
 Europeans, may claim a preference to thofe 
 of the Ethiopians, independently of our be- 
 ing more accuftomed to them. 
 
 The moft ftriking difference is the colour; 
 and it feems to me that there are fo many 
 obvious arguments in favour of the Euro- 
 pean, that I am furprifed the preference 
 fhould have been attributed to mere habit. 
 Light and colours are the only natural 
 pleafures of vifion, all the others being 
 acquired: but black is, in fome degree, a 
 privation both of light and colour; and it is 
 aflbciated with the more general privations 
 caufed by night and darknefs, and all the 
 
 gloomy
 
 C s 3 
 
 gloomy ideas that refult from them. Vari- 
 ety, gradation, and combination of tints, are 
 among the higheft pleafures of vifion : black 
 is abfolute monotony. In the particular in- 
 ftance of the human countenance, and mofl 
 of all in that of females, the changes which 
 arife from the fofter paffions and fenfations, 
 are above all others delightful; both from 
 their outward effect in regard to colour, and 
 from the connexion between that appearance 
 and the inward feelings of the mind : but 
 no Ethiopian poet could fay of his miftrefs, 
 
 Her pure and eloquent blood 
 
 Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, 
 That you might almost say her body thought. 
 
 The well-known anfwer of a Grecian 
 kdy, is not a lefs high compliment to the 
 fame fort of appearance in the male fex : 
 when afked what was the mod beautiful 
 colour in nature, fhe replied, the blufh of 
 an ingenuous youth. From that charming 
 
 fuffufion
 
 C 51 3 
 
 fuffufion in the human face, which can only 
 take place where the fkin is tranfparent, we 
 borrow an epithet very commonly given to 
 the moft beautiful of flowers : an Ethiopian 
 lady may admire the rofe's blufhing hue 
 (and it is faid that the black nations have 
 a fort of paffion for the rofe), but no fuch 
 pleafing aflbciation can arife in her mind. 
 
 In difcufling this fubjecl, I think I may 
 fairly be allowed to reafon from the analogy 
 of all we fee around us, efpecially from 
 objects, whether animate or inanimate, of 
 acknowledged beauty. I will firft obferve, 
 what every one muft have remarked, that 
 nature has made ufe of black in a very fmall 
 proportion : almoft all the objects we fee are 
 adorned with colours, or with white, which 
 is the union of them all; but fhe avoids 
 black, which is their extinction. In vege- 
 tation, fhe has interfperfed upon the general 
 cloathing of green, the ornaments of flowers, 
 
 and
 
 C 53 3 
 
 and of fruit; and thofe (he has decorated 
 with every delightful variety and combina- 
 tion of colours: lefs often, however, with 
 abfolute black, though from the accompani- 
 ment of leaves, a certain proportion of black 
 has a very rich effecl ; as we fee in the deep 
 purple of grapes, and in other berries either 
 bkck, or nearly approaching to black. In 
 flowers, black is atleaft as rare; and, upon 
 the whole, I think I am fully juftified in fay- 
 ing, that the colour of the Europeans, has a 
 much ftronger relation to the colours which 
 prevail in the moft avowedly beautiful ob- 
 jecls, than that of the Ethiopians, and, con- 
 fequently has the befl founded claim to 
 beauty. 
 
 It may be faid, (and it is an argument which 
 has been made ufe of) that, although we call 
 the negro complexion black, from its being 
 many degrees darker than that of the darkeft 
 European, yet it is far from being of one 
 
 uniform
 
 C 53 1 
 
 uniform black nefs : and that its tint, though 
 lefs varied, has arichnefs, which, in a pain- 
 ter's eye, may compenfate its comparative 
 monotony, and may, therefore, by him be 
 called beautiful. It is true, that fome of the 
 greateft colourifts have introduced negroes 
 into their piclures, and feem to have painted 
 them, as the Italians exprefs it, con a more, and 
 certainly with ftriking effect ; and, I may add, 
 none with more truth, or with a richer tone 
 of colouring, than Sir Jofhua Reynolds him- 
 felf:* but that he did not think fuch a tint 
 could accord with beauty, and efpecially 
 with female beauty, there is the cleareft proof 
 in one of his' admirable Notes on Du Fref- 
 noi. Sir Jofhua is there fpeaking of the 
 Venetian flyle of colouring, and that of Ti- 
 tian in particular, as the moft excellent, and 
 
 * There is a head of a negro painted by him, and now in 
 the pofleflion of Sir George Beaumont, which for character, 
 colouring, and mafterly execution, may vie with any head 01 
 the fame kind, by any mnfter. 
 
 as
 
 C 54 H 
 
 as eclipfing with its fplendour whatever i 
 brought into competition with it; yet, he 
 adds, if female delicacy and beauty be the 
 principal object of the painter's aim, the 
 purity and clearnefs of the tint of Guido 
 will correfpond better, and more contribute 
 to produce it, than even the glowing tint of 
 Titian. Now, if he judged that the hue of 
 Titian's naked figures, whether women or 
 children, which that great colourift had ftu- 
 died with more attention than any other 
 painter, and from models, not of a fouthern 
 climate, but of the north of Italy if he 
 judged that hue to be too rich and glow- 
 ing to correfpond with the idea of delicate 
 beauty, what would he have thought, if Ti- 
 tian, as a companion to his Florentine Ve- 
 nus, had painted an Ethiopian goddefs of 
 beauty, with Cupids of the fame dufky 
 complexion ? 
 
 From the whole of the Note, it appears 
 
 clearly
 
 C 55 D 
 
 clearly to have been the opinion of Sir 
 Jofhua, at a time too when his judgment 
 was perfectly matured, that Guido's co- 
 louring, the ftyle of which he characterizes 
 by the expreffion of filver tint, as oppofed 
 to the golden hue of Titian, is a ftandard 
 for the colouring of flefh, where beauty is 
 the objecl. That filver tint reprefents the 
 colour of the mod delicate European fkins, 
 in which white predominates ; and the gol- 
 den hue, thofe on which a richer, but a 
 browner tint has been imprefled. Every 
 gradation downwards from that golden, to 
 a deeper, and more dufky hue, is, accor- 
 ding to this doclrine, a departure from 
 beauty ; and confequently the complexion 
 of the negro, is at the extremity of the 
 fcale, as being the dire6t oppofite to a clear 
 and filvery tint.* 
 
 With 
 
 * White, in its greateft purity, being the union of all other 
 colours, ranks as high, and in lomr infiances higher, than any
 
 C 56 1 
 
 With refpecl: to form, I will begin by ob- 
 ferving in general, that the feature wirch 
 moft ftrongly diftinguifhes the human coun- 
 tenance, from that of all other animals, is 
 the nofe. Man is, I believe, the only ani- 
 jnal that has a marked projection in the 
 middle of the face; the nofes of other animals 
 being either flat, or not placed in that cen- 
 tral pofition. All proje6n'ons, univerfally, in 
 all objects, give character ; flatnefs and in- 
 fipidity being fvnonymous : but between 
 thofe large projections which give a ftrongly 
 marked characler, and thofe flight eleva- 
 tions which are deficient in characler, lies 
 that medium, which in all things has the 
 
 one of them feparately, or than any other union of them: and, 
 for the oppofite reafon, black, being the abfence, or extinction 
 of all colours, ranks below them all. In pearls and diamonds, 
 which are chiefly valuable for the pleafure they give to the 
 fight, pure colourlefs tranfparency constitutes the highefl excel- 
 lence : and though it might be prefumed, that the rich and the 
 tender colours of rubies, emeralds, &c. would be more attrac- 
 tive, yet the pure colourlefs luftre of the diamond, has the 
 preference. The fame may, perhaps, be faid of the moft pure 
 and perfed ftatuary marble. 
 
 beft
 
 C 57 3 
 
 bed claim to beauty. The fame principles 
 prevail in the form, as in the fize of pro- 
 jections : any fudden depreflion or eleva- 
 tion, or fudden variation of any kind, is a 
 departure from the medium, or central 
 form, as Sir Jofhua has exprefled it ; and if 
 that be the fenfe of his expreflion, the pre- 
 ference due to the European nofe over that 
 of the negroes, will be founded on his own 
 principles. 
 
 According to the fame principles, the lips 
 of the negroes are lefs beautiful, than thofe 
 which are moft admired among the Euro- 
 peans ; for they are further removed from 
 the central form from the medium be- 
 tween fuch lips as fcarce feem to cover the 
 teeth, and thofe which appear unnaturally 
 fwoln. 
 
 The laft object of comparifon is the hair ; 
 
 a circumftance of great beauty in itfelf. and 
 
 of the higheft ufe in accompanying the face. 
 
 E One
 
 C 8 i 
 
 One very principal beauty in hair, is its loofe 
 texture and flexibility ; by means of which 
 it takes, (as vines, and other flexible plants, 
 do in vegetation } a number of graceful 
 and becoming forms, without any affiftance 
 from art : and, like them too, is capable of 
 taking any arrangement that art can invent. 
 Add to this, the great diverfity of colours, 
 from the darkefl to the lighteft in all their 
 gradations ; the glofly furface ; the play of 
 light and fhadow, which always attends va- 
 riety of form ; and then contrail all this with 
 the monotony of the black woolly hair of the 
 negro ! its colour, nearly the fame in all of 
 them, and the form, without any natural 
 play or variety, and incapable of receiving 
 any from art! There is, likewife, another 
 circumftance of difference not to be omitted, 
 - that of motion : the poets are particularly 
 fond of defcribing this light, airy, playful 
 effecl of hair, both in man and in animals ; 
 
 Luduntque
 
 C 59 ] 
 
 Luduntquc juba? per colla per armos. 
 Irftonsosque agftaret Apollinis aura capfllos. 
 
 And Taflb, in fome meafure, makes it the 
 
 diftinguifhing mark of beauty- 
 Delia piu vaga, et cara Virginella, 
 Clie mai spiagasse al vcnto chioma d'oro. 
 
 The European ladies, in the wantonnefs and 
 caprice of fafhion, have fometimes chofen 
 *o hnitate the Ethiopian character of hair ; 
 though according to the French term for 
 fuch a head-drefs, the immediate objecl of 
 imitation was the head of a (beep : but the 
 Ethiopian ladies could not take their re- 
 venge ; they have no trefles which they can 
 either fpread ioofely on their fhoulders, or 
 tye up and arrange in numberless graceful 
 and becoming forms. 
 
 I flatter myfelf, that from what has been 
 faid of the chara^eriftic differences between 
 the Ethiopians and the Europeans, it wffl 
 appear, that die preference which we give 
 
 E 2 to
 
 C 60 j 
 
 to the form and colour of the latter, is not 
 merely the effect of habit and prejudice ; but 
 that it . is founded on the beft grounds that 
 can be had in fuch cafes, on the manifeft 
 analogy which fubfifts between thofe forms 
 and colours, and fuch as are acknowledged 
 to be beautiful in every other part of nature ; 
 and, like wife, on that very juft principle, 
 that the moft beautiful forms are thofe which 
 lie between the extremes, whether of thick - 
 nefs or thinnefs, flatnefs and fharpnefs, or 
 whatever thofe extremes may be. 
 
 The moft peculiar circumftance in what 
 we call Grecian beauty, is the ftrait line of 
 the nofe and forehead ; which is thought to be 
 almoft as characleriftic of the Grecian face, 
 as the flat nofe is of the Ethiopian. This 
 certainly is very unfavourable to the doclrine 
 of waving lines, and gradual variation ; for 
 although it might plaufibly be faid, that one 
 fuch ftrait line has a pleafing, as well as a 
 
 ftriking
 
 C ei 3 
 
 ftriking, effect, when contrafted with the 
 number of flowing lines of which the hu- 
 man face is compofed, ftill, however, in fo 
 very principal a feature as the nofe, it muft 
 be owned that the contraft is of too fudden 
 and marked a kind, to accord with Mr. 
 Burke's fyftem. But, on the other hand, 
 how very ftrong an argument will it be in 
 favour of that fyftem, if it fhould appear, 
 that in fome of the moft exquifite pieces of 
 Grecian art, in which beauty, in its ftricleft 
 fenfe, has been the chief object of the artift, 
 the line of the nofe and forehead has juft 
 that degree of gradual variation, which feems 
 in perfecl harmony with all the other lines 
 of the face. This, I believe, is the cafe in 
 a number of ftatues, gems and medals ; and 
 particularly in the ftatue, which, of all others, 
 is the beft example on the prefent occafion, 
 that of the Venus de Medicis : and as cafts 
 of that ftatue, and especially of the buft, are 
 E 3 very
 
 C 6* 3 
 
 very common, it is eafy for any perfon to 
 Satisfy himfelf with refpecl to the degree of 
 variation. 
 
 If this be true, even of one flatue of the 
 higheft clafs, that fingle inftance will out- 
 weigh millions of examples, drawn from in- 
 ferior works of art; more efpecially if it be 
 confidered that the ftatue in queftion, repre- 
 fents the Goddefs of Love and Beauty. It 
 muft, therefore, be at leaft doubtful, whether 
 the ancients confidered the ilrait line of the 
 nofe and forehead as the moil beautiful; but 
 whatever may have been their opinion, or 
 the forms of living models in Greece, the 
 reafon which Sir Joihua has affigned for the 
 beauty of that line, can hardly be admitted 
 in this country ; for fuch a line is fo far from 
 being the moft common, that we can eafily 
 recollecl the very few examples we have feen 
 of it. 
 
 The more extended pofition, "that the 
 
 " moft
 
 C % 1 
 
 ' moft general form of nature is the moft 
 " beautiful," muft, I think, relate to a 
 fuppofed central form, not to fuch as aclu- 
 ally exift : for, with refpect to the human 
 figure, to which he principally refers, we 
 can never caft our eyes round any place of 
 public re fort, without perceiving that the 
 proportion of handfome perfons of either fex 
 is comparatively fmall; much more fo of 
 thofe who are really beautiful: but if habit 
 and cuftom determined our preference, we 
 fhoulcl certainly prefer mediocrity to beauty, 
 as being infinitely more accuftomed to it. 
 
 The illuftration which he has drawn from 
 the naturalift, is not, I think, perfectly in point. 
 The aim of the naturalift is directed towards 
 the afcertainment of the fpecies; he com- 
 pares the different leaves, not as the painter 
 compares other objects, for the purpofe of 
 difcovering whether there be any of fo pe- 
 culiarly pleafing a form, as to deferve that 
 E 4 he
 
 C 6* 3 
 
 he fhould except them from the general 
 mafs, but limply to know what is that fhape, 
 in which the greateft number mod nearly 
 agree. By fuch obfervation, the naturalift 
 knows at the firft glance, the general form 
 of leaf in any particular fpecies ; if in fome 
 of the leaves there fhould be a flight differ- 
 ence, he ftill acknowledges them to be of the 
 fame fpecies; but if the variation, either in 
 the fhape, or the pofition of thofe marks 
 by which he diftinguifhes it, pafs certain 
 bounds, he confiders fuch a leaf as a mon- 
 ftrous, or capricious production of nature. 
 This is neither more nor lefs than we all 
 do in our own fpecies, from the unavoid- 
 able habit of obfervation : but this has no- 
 thing to do with the refearch of beauty in 
 either cafe ; nor does it at all tend to prove, 
 that the mofi general forms, are the moft 
 beautiful. 
 
 I therefore cannot avoid fufpecling, that 
 
 Sir
 
 t 65 3 
 
 Sir Jofhua's meaning imift be different from 
 what his words feem to exprefs : no man 
 certainly had better opportunities of know- 
 ing how fcarce a thing beauty is, even in 
 this country, where, in comparifon with 
 many others, it fo much abounds ; and 
 how very few among thofe who really de- 
 ferved that title, approached towards that 
 perfection, of which none had a jufter or 
 nicer idea than himfelf ; nor was he to be 
 informed, that in moft languages the epi- 
 thet rare is conftantly applied to beauty; 
 and the oppofite one of common, to the faces 
 and figures of women who are totally void of 
 it. If more inftances were required in fo 
 plain a cafe, there is a very peculiar one in 
 the Italian language that of applying the 
 epithet pellegrina, or foreign, to beauty ; 
 bellezze pellegrine ; leggiadria fmgolare et 
 Pellegrina ; as if beauty in any high degree 
 was fo rare, that they could not look for it 
 
 within
 
 C 66 D 
 
 within their own well-known limits, but 
 could only hope that it might vifit them 
 from fome diftant, and more fortunate re- 
 gion. If, then, Beauty be as rare, as thefe 
 expreflions, and our own experience fhow 
 it to be, it can hardly be called the moft 
 general form of nature, or the medium or 
 centre of its various forms, in any other 
 fenfe than that which I have fuppofed. 
 
 Beauty, then, according to this fuppofi- 
 tion, may, in refpecl to form, and particu- 
 larly the human form, be confidered as the 
 centre or medium between the extremes of 
 every kind ; but this per feel central form, 
 fo far from being common or general, has 
 very rarely been found to exift in any one 
 individual : to difcover, to abftracl, and fe- 
 parate it from all exiiting forms, required 
 numberlefs and repeated trials, obferva- 
 tions, and refinements : thefe were made 
 during a confiderable period of time by the 
 
 Grecian
 
 C 67 3 
 
 Grecian artifts ; and though they could fel- 
 dom find that central form in the whole of 
 anv one individual, they found it in parti- 
 c..lar parts; at lead fufficiently exadl for 
 them to copy from, with ftich corrections, 
 perhaps, as the abftracl ideas they had 
 formed under the guidance of nature might 
 fuggeft.* By putting thefe moft perfect 
 parts together and connecting them into a 
 wliole, both by means of the rules of fym- 
 raetry and proportion, which they had laid 
 down in confequence of repeated trials, and 
 likewife by the guidance of that nicety of 
 tafte and judgment, which adds all that 
 rules cannot teach, they created, what has 
 been called ideal beauty. In one particular 
 ftatue, Polycletus fo happily exemplified the 
 
 * PRryne feems to be an exception ; as fhe is faicl to have 
 beu the model of the Gnuliau Veuus oi" Praxiteles, and of 
 the Venus Anadyomene of Apelles: nor is it mentioned that 
 thofe artrfts matle aoy corrections, in copying tliat " human 
 " form divine," but thought it worthy, of reprelenting the god- 
 dl-ft, to whofe fervice it had always been dedicated. 
 
 rules
 
 IT 68 3 
 
 rules w hich he him felf had committed to writ- 
 ing, that they jointly obtained the name of the 
 canon', or the rule and model of the relation 
 which one part of the human figure bears to 
 the other, and of the refult of the whole. 
 
 Here, then, after long refearches, is a 
 diftincl: central form, to which others may 
 be referred ; a form to which nothing 
 could be added, from which nothing could 
 be taken away: this, therefore, with fuch 
 other works of art, as were wrought ac- 
 cording to the fame rules, and in the fame 
 fpirit, may properly be called " the inva- 
 " riable general form," not which na- 
 ie ture moft frequently produces/' but which 
 {he may be fuppofed " to intend in her pro- 
 " duclions." Such real, vifible models " of 
 " the great and general ideas which are 
 " fixed and inherent in univerfal nature" 
 being once acknowledged, it will naturally 
 follow, that all deviations from them muft 
 
 be
 
 C % H 
 
 be reckoned among " thofe accidental ble- 
 " mifhes and excrefcencies, which are con- 
 " tinually varying the furface of nature's 
 " works ;" and thence we have a clear con- 
 ception, of that to which die painter ought 
 to attend, when ftudying the higheft ftyle 
 of the art, and of that which he ought to 
 avoid. The practice of his belt guides the 
 ancient artifts, plainly {hews, that in their 
 opinion, whatever nature's intention may be, 
 fhe rarely produces a perfecl whole, or even 
 perfect parts ; and the ancient writers con- 
 firm that opinion, by their avowal of the 
 fuperiority of ftatues, even when they are 
 fpeaking of the parts of the human body 
 
 Pectoraque artifkuin laudatis proxime signis.* 
 
 From 
 
 * As the art of fculpture, if even invented in the time of 
 Homer, was then in its infancy, he has not made any compa- 
 rifon between his heroes and ftatues : but, what is curious 
 enough, in order to give an idea of the perfecl form of the 
 king of men, he has felecled different parts even of the gods 
 'O/ui/LcctTa xa* xE^aAy.y J'xstoj Aw TEpwtxijjanKw, 
 AfU TI Qmfj ffrtfvov Si rToo-t^awM. 
 
 One might almoft imaging, that Shakcfpeare had thought. of 
 
 this
 
 C. 70 3 
 
 From all that has hitherto been faid, the 
 opinions of Sir Joflaua Reynolds, and Mr. 
 Burke, feem to differ very much on the fub- 
 je6t of -beauty ; but, I believe, the difference 
 is more in the manner in which they viewed 
 and treated the fubjecl, than in the judg- 
 ment, which, according to their own prin- 
 ciples, they would have given of any work, 
 either of nature, or of art. The moft per- 
 fect fpecimens of the latter, are certainly the 
 fine antique ftatues; which being wrought 
 upon the principles already mentioned, ap- 
 proach as nearly as poffible to what Sir 
 Jofhua calls the central form : that is, to g&* 
 neral abftract nature, in oppofition to parti- 
 cular individual nature. From them the 
 
 this paflage in his description of Hamlet's father ; and that, as 
 nn particular part of Mars was clefcribed in Homer's compa- 
 rifon, he had chofen to take the eyes from Jupiter, and transfer 
 them to that god : 
 
 " Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himfelf ; 
 
 " An eye like Mars to threaten or command ; 
 
 " A ftation like the herald Mercury, 
 
 " New lighted on a heaven- killing hill.'" 
 
 great
 
 C 7' H 
 
 great Italian mailers firft learned to gene- 
 ralize their ideas, on all that in any way re- 
 lutes to their art; and from them, likewife, 
 they acquired their notions of perfe6t, ideal 
 beauty: but theie two acquirements, though 
 founded on one principle, ought, in my opi- 
 nion, to be confidered in diftin6l points of 
 view ; as, from the want of fuch diftincliottj 
 beauty and grandeur of character have been 
 ftrangely confounded. 
 
 This will appear in a very clear light, if 
 we reflecl, that the abftra6t method of con- 
 iidering the human form and countenance, 
 extended to all ages and characters; to the 
 ideal heads of aged bards, lawgivers, and 
 philofophers, as well as to the youthful forms 
 of either fex : and therefore beauty, in any 
 juft fenfe of the word, could not be the 
 conftant refult of it. That quality mull be 
 confined to fuch ftatues, as repreient young 
 and graceful perfons ; and thofe, indeed, are 
 
 the
 
 C 72 1 
 
 the moft perfect illuftrations of Sir Jofhua's 
 ideas of the beautiful. 
 
 But, again, as fuch ftatues difplay, in an 
 eminent degree, the qualities which Mr. 
 Burke has afligned to beauty, they are alfo 
 the moft perfect illuftrations of his fyftem :* 
 it therefore appears very plainly, that when 
 the models, to which both thefe eminent 
 judges would certainly have referred their 
 notions of perfecl beauty, are analyfed, thofe 
 notions are found to coincide : and the only 
 difference between them is, that the one 
 treats of the great general abftracl principles 
 of beauty; the other of its diftincl: vifible 
 qualities. Were there now extant any of 
 
 -> I lately hit upon a paflage that I had not remarked before, 
 
 in which Sir Jothua confiders flowing lines as effential to beauty, 
 
 and as being, in a manner, the chara&criftic marks of it. The 
 
 paffage is in his 56th Note on Du Frefnoi ; he there fays, " a 
 
 flowing outline is recommended, becaufe beauty (which a- 
 
 lone is nature) cannot be produced without it : old age or 
 
 leannefs produces ftrait lines ; corpulency round lines; but 
 
 in a ftate of health accompanying youth, the outlines are 
 
 waving, flowing, and ferpentine." 
 
 the
 
 C 73 ] 
 
 the firft-rate pictures of the ancient Greek 
 fchool the Venus of Apelles, or the Helen 
 of Zeuxis in perfedl prefervation, we fliould 
 probably fee, that the delicate blending of 
 the tints, their clearnefs and purity, would 
 equally tend to eftablifh Sir Jofhua's and 
 Mr. Burke's principles of the beautiful in 
 colour.* 
 
 if, 
 
 * Sir Jolluia's opinion on this point, as expreffed in his 43d 
 Note, has already been Hated. From that, and the laft men- 
 tioned Note I think it may he inferred, that he confidered 
 beauty <>i form as a difiinct character ; to which a flowing out- 
 line is efiential, and to which a particular ftyle of colouring, of 
 a pure and delicate kind, is above all others congenial : and 
 fo far he coincides with Mr. Burke's idea of the beautiful, in 
 the two principal points of form and colour. Then, likcwife, 
 as he considers a more rich and glowing tint, though its effecl 
 i-; much more linking and powerful, as lefs fuited to genuine 
 beauty, I Hatter myfelf that his great authority fupports in 
 fume meafure my idea of a character in colour, and in colour- 
 ing, which might without impropriety be called piciurefque :* 
 for if the colouring of Titian, who fo minutely attended to the 
 niceft variations in the tints of naked bodies, (confeffedly the 
 molt difficult part of the art of colouring,) was thought by him 
 Id-; fuited to beauty than that of Guido, how much lei's fuited 
 to it muli be the colouring of many other painters, who are 
 indeed highly celebrated for richncfs and effect, but are far 
 from pofieffing the delicacy of Titian ; ftich as Mola and Feti 
 among the Italian, and Rcmbrant among the Dutch matters ! 
 
 * Kflay on the riflurrfq'ie, v<H I :> 198. 
 
 That
 
 C 74 3 
 
 If, then, it be true, that by adhering to 
 a central form as difplayed in the beft an- 
 tique ftatues, and by applying to it the qua- 
 lities of beauty as dated by Mr. Burke, it 
 would be almoft impoflible not to produce 
 a beautiful object ; and if, on the other hand, 
 it would be quite impoflible to produce one, 
 if that central form, and thofe qualities, were 
 rejected ; and if this may equally be affirm- 
 ed, with refpect to all other objects in na- 
 ture, as well as to the human figure it 
 points out very diftinclly, in what beauty 
 does, and does not, confift ; and it fhews, 
 that although an Apollo Belvidere, or a 
 Venus de Medicis, cannot be made by 
 means of rules and qualities, yet they could 
 not be made in oppofition to them. 
 
 That their ftyle of colouring is not congenial to beauty in it? 
 Uriel; fenfe, we have Sir Jofhua's authority : \ve have likewife 
 his authority, that it is not fuited to grandeur, when compared 
 with the unbroken colours of the Roman and Florentine fchools, 
 or the foleinn hue of the Bolognian j* but that it mull be fuited 
 to fome character in nature, and of no mean or obfcure kind, 
 it is impoflible to doubt. 
 
 * Difcourfc IV. p. 59. 
 
 Laffly,
 
 C 75 3 
 
 Laftly, if it appear, that thofe qualities 
 which are fuppofed to conflitute the beau- 
 tiful, are in all objects chiefly found to exifl 
 at that period, when nature has attained, but 
 not parted, a ftate of perfect completion, we 
 furely have as clear, and as certain principles 
 on this, as on many other fubjects, where 
 little doubt is entertained. There feems, 
 however, to be this difference in regard to 
 our ideas of the fublime, and of the beau- 
 tiful. Thofe objects which call forth our 
 wonder, are rare ; and their rarity is in- 
 deed one caufe of their effect : the term fub- 
 lime, is therefore lefs frequently mifapplied. 
 Thofe, on the other hand, which create our 
 pleafure, are comparatively common, and 
 familiar ; and as we are apt to give the 
 name of beauty to all objects which give 
 us pleafure, however different from each 
 other in their qualities, or character, our 
 notions of beauty, and our application of 
 
 2 the
 
 C 76 1 
 
 the term, have been proportionably lax and 
 indiftincl. To give them a juft degree of 
 precifion, it therefore was not fufficient to 
 point out what in its ftri6l acceptation is 
 beautiful ; it was likewife neceflary to ac- 
 count for the pleafure which we receive 
 from numberlefs objects, r-Mther fublime, 
 nor beautiful, yet well entitled to form a 
 feparate clafs ; and this I have endeavoured 
 to do, in my EiTays on the Piclurefque.
 
 THE DISTINCT CHARACTERS 
 
 OP 
 
 The Piflurefque and the Beautiful, 
 
 IN ANSWER TO THE 
 
 OBJECTIONS OF MR. KMGIIT.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 JL HE following Dialogue is written in 
 anfwer to a Note, which my friend Mr. 
 Knight has inferted in the fecond edi- 
 tion of The Land/cape. In that Note 
 he has dated it as his opinion, that the 
 diftin&ion which I have endeavoured 
 to eftabliih between the Beautiful and 
 the Pi&urefque, is an imaginary one; 
 and has given his reafons for thinking 
 fo. Now, as that diiMnftion forms a 
 principal part of my EiTay, I have, 
 perhaps, too long neglefted to anfwer 
 fuch an antagonift. 
 
 F 4 Great
 
 C 8o 3 
 
 Great part of what I have now print- 
 ed, was written immediately after the 
 publication of the Note; but being at 
 that time very much occupied in pre- 
 paring a fecond edition of my firft vo- 
 lume, and in fmifhing my fecond, I 
 laid the Dialogue by, till they were both 
 completed: and having left what I had 
 written in its unfinifhed ftate, I fhould 
 never have refumed it, if a perfon, on 
 whofe judgment I have the greateft re- 
 liance, had not been of opinion, that it 
 placed the whole of my diftin&ion in a 
 new, and, in fome refpecls, in a more 
 (biking point of view, than any of my 
 former publications. 
 
 I have thrown my defence into its 
 prefent form, in hopes that, after fo 
 much difcuflion upon the fubjecl:, fome- 
 thing lighter, and more like amufement, 
 
 -might
 
 C 81 3 
 
 might be furnifhcd by this method. 
 I allb thought, that many perfons who 
 were not affefted or convinced by rea- 
 foning only, might poffibly be ftruck 
 with it when mixed with imagery; 
 when the different objects were placed 
 before them, and fucceffrvely examin- 
 ed and canvaffed by the different fpeak- 
 ers in the Dialogue ; and when the 
 doubts and queftions, which may na- 
 turally occur to an unpra&ifed mind, 
 were dated by a character of that dc- 
 fcription, and thereby more familiarly 
 difcuffed and explained, than can be 
 done in a regular Effay. 
 
 For this purpofe, I have fuppofed 
 two of the characters to be very con- 
 verfant in all that relates to nature, and 
 painting: that one of them, whom for 
 diftinftion I have called by the name 
 
 of
 
 C 82 j 
 
 of Howard, is a partizan of Mr. 
 Knight's; that the other, whom I have 
 called Hamilton, is attached to my 
 opinions; and that the third, of the 
 name of Seymour, has little acquaint- 
 ance with the art of painting, or 
 with the application of its principles 
 to that of gardening, or to natural 
 fcenery. 
 
 By means of the fuppofed partizan 
 of Mr. Knight's opinions, 1 have in- 
 troduced almoft the whole of the Note 
 into the body of the Dialogue: but as 
 it appears there in detached parts, juft 
 as ^ the arguments might be conceived 
 to occur in the courfe of the difcuffion, 
 I thought it right to print it altoge- 
 ther; for it would be very unfair to 
 Mr. Knight, if the reader were not 
 enabled to view the whole chain of his 
 
 reafon-
 
 C 83 3 
 
 reafoning as he had arranged it himfelf, 
 and likewife to refer to it whenever he 
 had occafion. 
 
 Some of my friends, who had read 
 this Dialogue in manufcript, were in- 
 clined to think, that the paifages which 
 were taken from the Note, fhould be 
 diftinguiihed by inverted commas: but 
 as the Note itfelf is now prefixed, fuch 
 a diftinftion feems lefs neceflfary. There 
 were, indeed, fome objections to it; 
 for I have at times been obliged to in- 
 troduce and conned thofe paffages by 
 words of my own, which therefore 
 could not, without impropriety, have 
 been included within the commas; and 
 yet, being part of the fame fpeech, 
 could not, without aukwardnefs, have 
 been excluded. I judged, alfo, that 
 the frequent recurrence of fuch com- 
 mas,
 
 C 84 3 
 
 mas, might dinra& the reader's atten- 
 tion from what was going forward, and, 
 in any cafe, take off from the natural- 
 nefs of the dialogue.
 
 NOTE 
 
 AVXEXED TO 
 
 THE SECOND EDITION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LANDSCAPE 
 
 A DIDACTIC POEM. 
 
 HY R. P. KNIGHT, ESQ.
 
 NOTE 
 
 ANNEXED TO 
 
 HIE SECOND EDITION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LANDSCAPE. 
 
 IT is now, I believe, generally admitted, 
 that the fyftem of piclurefque improvement, 
 employed by the late Mr. Brown and his 
 followers, is the very reverfe of pi6turefque ; 
 all fubjecls for painting inftantly difappear- 
 ing as they advance ; whence an ingenious 
 profefibr, who has long pracliied under the 
 title of Landfcape Gardener, has fuddenly 
 changed his ground ; and taking advantage 
 of a fuppofed dinMnclion between the piclu- 
 refque and the beautiful, confefled that his 
 art was never intended to produce landfcapes, 
 
 but
 
 r ss ] 
 
 but fome kind of neat, fimple, and elegant 
 effects, or non-defcript beauties, which have 
 not yet been named or clafled. ( See Letter 
 to Mr. Price, p. 9.) "A beautiful garden 
 " fcene," he fays, "is not more defective be- 
 " caufe it would not look well on canvas, than 
 " a didaSlic poem, becaufe it neither furnijlies 
 " a fubjeSt for the painter or the mufician." 
 (Ibid. p. 5 and 6. ) Certainly not : for fuch 
 a poem muft be void of imagery and melo- 
 dy; and, therefore, more exactly refembling 
 one of this profeflbr's improved places than 
 he probably imagined when he made the 
 comparifon. It may, indeed, have all the 
 neatnefe, funplicity, and elegance of E?tgli/Jj 
 gardening (ibid. p. 9.) ; but it will alfo have 
 its vapid and tirefome infipidity ; and, how- 
 ever it may be efteemed by a profeffor or a 
 critic, who judge every thing by rule and 
 meafure, will make no impreffion on the 
 generality of readers, whofe tafte is guided 
 by their feelings. 
 
 I cannot
 
 C 89 ] 
 
 I cannot, however, but think that the 
 diftinction, of which this ingenious profef- 
 for has thus taken advantage, is an imagi- 
 nary one, and that the piclurefque is merely 
 that kind of beauty which belongs exclu- 
 fively to the fenfe of vifion ; or to the ima- 
 gination, guided by that fenfe. It mufl 
 always be remembered in inquiries of this 
 kind, that the eye, unafiifted, perceives no- 
 thing but light varioufly graduated and 
 modified : black objects are thofe which 
 totally abforb it, and white thofe which en- 
 tirely reflect it ; and all the intermediate 
 ihades and colours are the various degrees 
 in which it i^ partially abforbed or impeded, 
 and the various modes in which it is reflecl- 
 cd and refracled. Smoothnefs, or harmony 
 of furface, is to the touch what harmony of 
 colour is to the eye ; and as the eye has 
 learnt by habit to perceive form as inftan- 
 taneoufly as colour, we perpetually apply 
 
 G terms
 
 C 9 3 
 
 terms belonging to the fenfe of touch to 
 objecls of fight ; and while they relate only 
 to perception, we are guilty of no impro- 
 priety in fo doing ; but we fhould not for- 
 get that perception and fenfation are quite 
 different ; the one being an operation of the 
 mind, and the other an impreflion on the 
 organs ; and that therefore, when we fpeak 
 of the pleafures and pains of each, we ought 
 to keep them quite feparate, as belonging 
 to different clafles, and governed by diffe- 
 rent laws. 
 
 Where men agree in facts, almoft all their 
 difputes concerning inferences arife from a 
 confufion of terms ; no language being fuf- 
 ficiently copious and accurate to afford a dif- 
 tincl expreffion for every difcrimination ne- 
 ceflary to be made in a philofophical inquiry, 
 not guided by the certain limits of number 
 and quantity; and vulgar ufe having intro- 
 duced a mixture of literal and metaphorical 
 
 meanings
 
 C 9i D 
 
 meanings fo perplexing, that people perpe- 
 tually ufe words without attaching any pre- 
 cife meaning to them whatever. This is 
 peculiarly the cafe with the word beauty, 
 which is employed fometimes to fignify that 
 congruity and proportion of parts, which 
 in compofition pleafes the underftanding ; 
 fometimes thofe perfonal charms, which ex- 
 cite animal defires between the fexes ; and 
 fometimes thofe harmonious combinations 
 of colours and fmells, which make grate- 
 ful imprefllons upon the vifual or olfactory 
 nerves. It often happens too, in the laxity 
 of common converfation or defultory writ- 
 ing, that the word is ufed without any 
 pointed application to either, but with a 
 mere general and indiftincl reference to 
 what is any ways pleafing. 
 
 This confufion has been ftill more con- 
 founded, by its having equally prevailed in 
 all the terms applied to the conftituent pro- 
 o 2 perties
 
 t m 3 
 
 perties both of beauty and uglinefs. We 
 call a ftill clear piece of water, furrounded 
 by fhaven banks, and reflecting white build- 
 ings, or other brilliant objects that ftand 
 near it, fmooth, becaufe we perceive its fur- 
 face to be fmooth and even, though the im- 
 preflion, which all thefe harfh and edgy 
 reflections of light produce on the eye, is 
 analogous to that which roughnefs produces 
 on the touch ; and is often fo violently irri- 
 tating, that we cannot bear to look at it for 
 any long time together. In the fame man- 
 ner, we call an agitated ilream, flowing 
 between broken and fedgy banks, and in- 
 diftinctly reflecting the waving foliage that 
 hangs over it, rough ; becaufe we know, 
 from habitual obfervation, that its impref- 
 fion on the eye is produced by uneven fur- 
 faces ; at the fame time that the impreffion 
 itfelf is all of foftnefs and harmony ; and 
 analogous to what the mod grateful and 
 
 nicely
 
 C 93 D 
 
 nicely varied fmoothnefs would be to tlie 
 touch. This is the cafe with all fmooth ani- 
 mals, whofe forms being determined by 
 marked outlines, and the furfaces of whofe 
 Jkins producing ftrong reflections of light, 
 have an effecl on the eye correfponding to 
 what irritating roughnefs has upon the 
 touch; while the coats of animals which are 
 rough and ftiaggy, by partly abforbing the 
 light, and partly fattening it by a mixture 
 of tender fhadows, and thus connecting and 
 blending it with that which proceeds from 
 furrounding objects, produce an effect on the 
 eye fimilar to that which an undulated and 
 gently varied fmoothnefs affords to the touch. 
 The fame analogy prevails between (haven 
 lawns and tufted paftures, drefled parks and 
 fhaggy forefts, neat buildings and moulder- 
 ing walls, &c. &c. as far as they affect the 
 fenfes only. In all, our landscape gardeners 
 feem to work for the touch rather than the 
 fight. 
 
 G 3 When
 
 [ 94 3 
 
 When harmony, either in colour or fur- 
 face becomes abfolute unity, it finks into 
 what, in found, we call monotony ; that is, 
 its impreflion is fo languid and unvaried, 
 that it produces no farther irritation on the 
 organ than what is neceflary for mere per- 
 ception, which, though never totally free 
 from either pleafure or pain, is fo nearly 
 neutral, that by a continuation it grows 
 tirefome; that is, it leaves the organ to a 
 fenfation of mere exiftence, which feems in 
 itfelf to be painful. 
 
 If colours are fo harfh and contrafted, 
 or the furface of a tangible objecl fo pointed 
 or uneven, as to produce a ftronger or more 
 varied impreffion than the organ is adapted 
 to bear, the irritation becomes painful in 
 proportion to its degree, and ultimately 
 tends to its diflblution. 
 
 Between thefe extremes lies that grateful 
 medium of grateful irritation, which pro- 
 duces the fenfation of what we call beauty ; 
 
 and
 
 C 95 1 
 
 and which in vifible objects we call piflu- 
 refque beauty, becaufe painting, by imitat- 
 ing the vifible qualities only, difcriminates 
 it from the objects of other fenfes with which 
 it may be combined ; and which, if produc- 
 tive of ftronger impreflions, either of plea- 
 fure or difgutt, will overpower it ; fo that a 
 mind not habituated to fucli difcriminations, 
 or (as more commonly exprefled,) a perfon 
 not porTeffed of a painter's eye, does not dif- 
 cover it till it is feparated in the artifVs imi- 
 tation. Rembrandt, Oftade, Teniers, and 
 others of the Dutch painters, have produced 
 the moft beautiful pictures, by the moft ex- 
 act imitations of the moft ugly and difguft- 
 ing objects in nature ; and yet it is phy- 
 fically impottible that an exact imitation 
 Ihould exhibit qualities not exifting in its 
 original; but the cafe is, that, in the ori- 
 ginals, animal difguft, and the naufeating 
 repugnance of appetite, drown and over- 
 
 G 4, whelm
 
 C 96 U 
 
 whelm every milder pleafure of vifion, which 
 a blended variety of mellow and harmonious 
 tints muft neceflarily produce on the eye, in 
 nature as well as in art, if viewed in both 
 with the fame degree of abftracled and im- 
 partial attention. 
 
 In like manner, properties pleafing to the 
 other fenfes, often exift in objects difgufting 
 or infipid to the eye, and make fo ftrong an 
 impreflion, that perfons who feek only what 
 is generally pleafing, confound their fenfa- 
 tions, and imagine a thing beautiful, becaufe 
 they fee in it fomething which gives them 
 pleafure of another kind. I am not inclined, 
 any more than Mr. Repton, to defpife the 
 comforts of a gravel walk, or the delicious 
 fragrance of afbrubbery ; (fee his Letter to 
 Mr. Price, p. 18.) neither am I inclined to 
 defpife the convenience of a paved ftreet, or 
 the agreeable fcent of diftilled lavender ; 
 but neverthelefs, if the pavier and perfumer 
 
 were
 
 C 97 D 
 
 were to recommend their works as delicious 
 gratifications for the eye, I might be tempt- 
 ed to treat them both with fome degree of 
 ridicule and contempt. Not only the fra- 
 grance of ih rubs, but the frefhnefs of young 
 graft, and green turf, and the coolnefs of 
 clear water, however their difpofition in mo- 
 dern gardens may be adverfe to piclurefque 
 beauty, and difgufiing to the fenfe of feeing, 
 are tilings fo grateful to the nature of man, 
 that it is impoffible to render them wholly 
 difagreeable. Even in painting, where frefh- 
 iieis and coolnefs are happily reprefented, 
 fcenes not d i Hi ngui fried by any beautiful 
 varieties of tints or fhadows, pleafe through 
 the medium of the imagination, which in- 
 flantly conceives the comforts and pleafures 
 which fuch fcenes mult afford ; but fiill, in 
 painting, they never reconcile us to any 
 harm, or glaring difcords of colour ; where- 
 fore I have recommended that art as the 
 
 beft
 
 C 98 3 
 
 beft criterion of the mere vifible beauties of 
 rural fcenery, which are all that I have pre- 
 tended to criticife. 
 
 If, however, an improver of grounds 
 choofes to reject this criterion, and to con- 
 fider piclurefque beauty as not belonging 
 to his profeffion, I have nothing more to 
 do with him ; the objects of our purfuit 
 and inveftigation being entirely different. 
 All that I beg of him is, that if he takes 
 any profejponal title, it may be one really 
 defcriptive of his profeflion, fuch as that of 
 walk maker, Jhrub planter, turf cleaner, or 
 rural perfumer ; for if landscapes are not 
 what he means to produce, that of landfcape 
 gardener is one not only of no mean, but .of 
 no true pretenfion, 
 
 As for the beauties of congruity, intricacy, 
 lightnefs, motion, repofe, &c. they belong 
 exclufively to the understanding and imagi- 
 nation ; and though I have flightly noticed 
 
 them
 
 [ 99 3 
 
 them in the text, a full and accurate invefti- 
 gation of them would not only exceed the 
 limits of a note, but of my whole work. 
 The firft great obfiruclion to it is the ambi- 
 guity of language, and the difficulty of find- 
 ing diftin6t terms to difcriminate diftinct 
 ideas. The next is the habit which men are 
 in, of flying for allufions to the inclination of 
 the fexes towards each other ; which, being 
 the ftrongeft of our inclinations, draws all 
 the others into its vortex, and thus becomes 
 the criterion of pleafures, with which it has 
 no further connection than being derived 
 from the fame animal functions with the 
 reft. All male animals probably think the 
 females of their own fpecies the moft beau- 
 tiful part of the creation ; and in the various 
 and complicated mind of civilized man, this 
 original refult of appetite has been ib 
 changed aad diverfified by the various mo- 
 difications of mental fympathies, focial ha- 
 bits,
 
 C 100 ] 
 
 bits, and acquired propenfities, that it is im- 
 poflible to analyze it : it can therefore afford 
 no lights to guide us in exploring the gene- 
 ral principles and theory of fenfation. 

 
 A 
 
 DIALOGUE 
 
 ON 
 
 i II E DISTINXT CHARACTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PICTURESQUE K THE BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 R. Howard and Mr. Hamilton, two gen- 
 tlemen remarkably fond of pictures, 
 were on their return from a tour they had 
 been making through the north of England. 
 They were juft fetting out on their walk to 
 a feat in the neighbourhood, where there 
 was a famous collection of pictures, when a 
 chaife drove to the inn door; and they faw, 
 to their great delight, that the perfon who 
 got out of it was Mr. Seymour, an intimate 
 friend of their's. After the firft rejoicings at 
 meeting fo unexpectedly, they told him whi- 
 ther
 
 C 10 * 3 
 
 ther they were going, and propofed to him 
 to accompany them. You know, faid he, 
 how ignorant I am of pictures, and of every 
 thing that relates to them ; but, at all events, 
 I fhall have great pleafure in walking with 
 you, and fhall not be forry to take a lefTon of 
 connoifieurfhip from two fuch able matters. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton had formerly been a great 
 deal at the houfe they were going to, and 
 undertook to be their guide : the three friends 
 however converfed fo eagerly together, that 
 they miffed their way, and got into a wild 
 unfrequented part of the country; when, 
 iuddenly, they came to a ruinous hovel on 
 the outfkirts of a heathy common. In a 
 dark corner of it, fome gypfies were fitting 
 over a half-extinguimed fire, which every 
 now and then, as one of them (looped down 
 to blow it, feebly blazed up for an inftant, 
 and fhewed their footy faces, and black 
 tangled locks. An old male gypfey Hood at 
 
 the
 
 C 103 3 
 
 the entrance, with a countenance that well 
 exprefled his three-fold occupation, of beg- 
 gar, thief, and fortune-teller; and by him 
 a few worn-out afTes : one loaded with 
 nifty panniers, the others with old tattered 
 cloaths and furniture. The hovel was propt 
 and overhung by a blighted oak; its bare 
 roots flaring through the crumbling bank 
 on which it flood. A gleam of light from 
 under a dark cloud, glanced on the moil 
 prominent parts : the reft was buried in 
 deep fhadow ; except where the dying em- 
 bers 
 
 " Taught light to counterfeit a gloom." 
 
 The three friends flood a long while con- 
 templating this fingular fcene ; but the two 
 lovers of painting could hardly quit it : they 
 talked in raptures of every part ; of the old 
 hovel, the broken ground, the blafted oak, 
 gypfies, afles, panniers, the catching lights, 
 the deep fhadows, the rich mellow tints, the 
 
 group-
 
 il 104 3 
 
 grouping, the compofition, the effecl of the 
 whole ; and the words beautiful, and pic- 
 turefque, were a hundred times repeated. 
 The uninitiated friend liftened with fome 
 furprife ; and when their raptures had a lit- 
 tle fubfided, he begged them to explain to 
 him how it happened, that many of thofe 
 things which he himfelf, and moft others he 
 /believed, would call ugly, they called beauti- 
 ful, and piffiurefque a word, which thofe 
 who were converfant in painting, might per- 
 haps ufe in a more precife, or a more extend- 
 ed fenfe, than was done in common dif- 
 courfe, or writing. Mr. Howard told him 
 that the piclurefque, was merely that kind of 
 beauty which belongs exclufively to the 
 fenfe of vifion, or to the imagination guided 
 by that fenfe. Then, faid Mr. Seymour, as 
 far as vifible objects are concerned, what 
 is piclurefque is beautiful, and vice verfa; 
 in fhort, they are two words for the fame 
 
 idea.
 
 C 
 
 idea. I do not, however, entirely compre- 
 hend the meaning of exclufively, to the fenfe 
 of vifion." 
 
 " It mull always be remembered," an- 
 fwered the other, " in enquiries of this kind, 
 that the eye, unaflified, perceives nothing 
 but light varioufly graduated and modified: 
 black objects are thofe which totally abforb 
 it; and white, thofe which entirely reflect 
 it; and all the intermediate fhades and co- 
 lours, are the various degrees in which it is 
 partially abforbed or impeded : fmoothnefs, 
 or harmony of furface, is to the touch, what 
 harmony of colour is to the eye ; and as the 
 eye has learnt by habit to perceive form, as 
 inftantaneoufly as colour, we perpetually ap- 
 ply terms belonging to the fenfe of touch to 
 objects of fight ; and while they relate only 
 to perception, we are guilty of no impropriety 
 in fo doing; but we fliould not forget that 
 perception, and fenfation, are quite different : 
 
 H the
 
 C 106 ] 
 
 the one being an operation of the mind, the 
 other an impreflion on the organs ; and that 
 therefore, when we fpeak of the pleafures and 
 pains of each, we ought to keep them quite 
 feparate, as belonging to different clafles, 
 and governed by different laws/' 
 
 " There can be no doubt/' laid Mr. 
 Seymour, " of the diftinu'on between per- 
 ception and fenfation ; but in fpeaking of 
 vifible objecls, I can hardly admit that 
 they are quite different, or that they ought 
 to be kept quite feparate ; becaufe per- 
 ception, as an operation of the mind, 
 has no exiftence but through the medi- 
 um of impreffions on the organs of fenfe: 
 perception, therefore, in the mind, and fen- 
 fation in the organ, although diftmcl opera- 
 tions in themfelves, are practically infepara- 
 ble. I am ready, for inftance, to allow, that 
 an eye unailifted, fees nothing but light va- 
 rioufly modified; but where will you find 
 
 fuch
 
 c 10? n 
 
 fuch an eye ? We have all learned to diftin- 
 guifh by the fight alone, not only form in 
 general, but, likewife, its different qualities; 
 fuch as hardnefs, foftnefs, roughnefs, fmooth- 
 nefs, &c. and to judge of the diftance and 
 gradation of objects: all thefe ideas, it is 
 true, are originally acquired by the touch ; 
 but from ufe, they are become as much ob- 
 jecls of the fight, as colours. Ton may poi- 
 fibly be able, fo to abftral your attention 
 from all thefe heterogeneous qualities, as to 
 fee light and colours only ; but, for my part, 
 I plainly fee that old gypfey's wrinkles, as 
 well as the colour of his fkin ; I fee that his 
 beard is not only grizzle, but rough and 
 flubbed, arid, in my mind, very ugly; I 
 fee that the hovel is rugged and uneven, as 
 well as brown and dingy ; and I cannot get 
 thefe things out of my mind by any endea- 
 vours : in fhort, what I fee and feel to be 
 ugly, I cannot think, or call beautiful, what- 
 ever lovers of painting may do/' 
 
 jr 2 It
 
 C 108 ] 
 
 " It is by a love and ftudy of pictures," 
 replied Mr. Howard, " that this beauty is 
 perceived; becaufe painting, by imitating the 
 vifible qualities only, difcriminates it from 
 the obje61s of the other fenfes with which 
 it may be combined, and which, if produc- 
 tive of flronger imprefllons either of plea- 
 fure or difguft, will overpower it ; fo that a 
 mind not habituated to fuch dilcriminations, 
 or (as more commonly exprefled) a perfon 
 not poflefled of a painter's eye, does not dif- 
 cover it till it is feparated in the artift's 
 imitation. Rembrandt, Oftade, Teniers, and 
 others of the Dutch painters, have produced 
 the moft beautiful pictures by the moft ex- 
 a6t imitations of the moft ugly and difguft- 
 ing objects in nature; and yet it is phy- 
 fically impofTible, that an exact imitation 
 fhould exhibit qualities not exifting in its 
 original ; but the cafe is, that in the origi- 
 nals, animal difguft and the naufeating re- 
 pugnance of appetite, drown and overwhelm 
 
 every
 
 C 309 3 
 
 every milder pleafure of vifion, which a 
 blended variety of mellow and harmonious 
 tints mud neceflarily produce on the eye, 
 in nature as well as in art, if viewed in both 
 with the fame degree of abftracted and im- 
 partial attention." 
 
 " I have liftened," faid Mr. Seymour, 
 " with much pleafure, for I think there is 
 fomething very ingenious in this explana- 
 tion ; ftill, however, I have many doubts and 
 objections. The firft is, that when I fee that 
 all the parts are ugly, I can hardly bring 
 myfelf to call the whole beautiful, merely 
 on account of thofe mellow, harmonious 
 tints, you mention : much lefs can I bring 
 myfelf to call the parts themfelves beautiful, 
 or (what I find is the fame thing) piclu- 
 refque. Were it true indeed, that we faw 
 nothing but light varioufly modified, fuch a 
 way of confidering objects would be more 
 juft ; for then the eye would in fuch objects 
 H 3 really
 
 C n 3 
 
 really lee nothing, but what, in point of 
 harmony, was beautiful: but that pure ab- 
 flracl: enjoyment of vifion, though poflibly 
 referved in future for fome man, who may 
 be born without the fenfe of feeling, our in- 
 veterate habits will not let us partake of. 
 Another circumftance ftrikes me in your 
 manner of confidering objects : you lay great 
 ftrefs, and, I dare fay, with reafon, on ge- 
 neral effect, and general harmony ; but do 
 you not, on the other hand, lay too little 
 flrefs on the particular parts when you talk 
 of beauty ? For inftance, what you call ef- 
 fect of light and fhade, is, I imagine, when 
 the fun fhines flrongly on fome parts, and 
 others are in deep fhadow: but fuppofe 
 thofe people and animals, and that building, 
 were beautiful, according to the common 
 notions of beauty ; that old gypfey, a hand- 
 fome young man ; thofe worn-out beafts of 
 burthen, gay and handfome horfes ; that 
 
 old
 
 C n 3 
 
 old hovel, a handfome building: would fuch 
 a change preclude all effecl: of light and fha- 
 dovv ? would it preclude all harmony of co- 
 lours ? and are ugly objecls alone adapted 
 to receive a blended variety of mellow and 
 harmonious tints ? 
 
 " I am willing," continued he, after a fhort 
 paufe, " to allow a great deal to harmony of 
 colours ; its effect is perceived in a nofegay, 
 or a riband ; but is, therefore, the beauty 
 of particular colours to be totally out of the 
 queftion, and their harmony folely to be at- 
 tended to? and am I obliged to call a num- 
 ber of colours beautiful, becaufe they match 
 well, though each of them, feparately con- 
 fidered, is ugly r It is very poffible, for ex- 
 ample, that the old gypfey's tanned fkin, the 
 afs and his panniers, the rotten pofts and 
 thatch of the hovel, may match each other 
 admirably ; but, for the foul of me, I cannot 
 think of them in the fame light, with the frefh 
 H 4 and
 
 L I" 
 
 and tender colours in the cheeks of young 
 men or women ; with the fhapes and colours 
 of fleek and pampered horfes, richly and 
 gaily caparifoned; or with thofe of porticos 
 or columns of marble, porphyry, lapis la- 
 zuli, or even common free-ftone ; and I can 
 fcarcely think that you do. It is very poffi- 
 "ble, alfo, that the blafted old oak there its 
 trunk a mere (hell its bark full of knobs, 
 fpots, and ftains its branches broken and 
 twifted, with every mark of injury and de- 
 cay; may pleafe the painter more than a tree 
 in full vigour and frefhnefs; and I grant 
 that thofe circumftances do give it a wild 
 and fmgular appearance, and fo far attract 
 attention ; but, furely, you cannot be in earn- 
 eft, when you call fuch circumftances beau- 
 tiful?" 
 
 Mr. Hamilton had liftened in filence to 
 the converfation of his two friends, and, at 
 the fame time, had been obferving the courfe 
 
 of
 
 of the country, in order to correct his mif- 
 take in the road ; he now recollected a way 
 arrofs the heathy common, which, after tak- 
 ing a laft look at the hovel and its inhabi- 
 tants, they purfued. under his guidance. 
 Then turning to Mr. Howard, " there are 
 feveral things," faicl he, " that have been 
 thrown out by our uninitiated friend, which 
 you could not well deny in general, nor yet 
 venture to make thofe difcriminations which 
 might naturally have occurred to you ; for 
 you know they would tend to fanction a 
 certain diitin6tion, that you have chofen to 
 
 " I perceive by this," faid Mr. Seymour, 
 " that there are different feels among you 
 modern connoifleurs, as there were among 
 the antient philofophers ; and as an antient, 
 whofe doubts were not perfectly refolved 
 by a Stoic, would apply to an Epicurean 
 or a Peripatetic, fo I \vill now beg to pro- 
 pofe fome queries to you." 
 
 There
 
 C "4 3 
 
 " There is but one point of difference/' 
 faid Mr. Hamilton, " between Howard and 
 me, and that rather on a matter of curious 
 enquiry, than of real moment; our gene- 
 ral principles are the fame, and I flatter 
 myfelf we mould pafs nearly the fame 
 judgment on the merits and defects of any 
 work of art, or on any piece of natural, or 
 improved fcenery ; but our friend there has 
 taken a ftrong antipathy to any diftinclion 
 or fubdivifion on this fubjecV 
 
 " For the prefent," faid Mr. Seymour, 
 " I will not enter any further on this 
 point of difference, but will at once be- 
 gin my queries. Tell me, then, how you 
 account for this ftrange difference between 
 an eye accuftomed to painting, and that of 
 fuch a perfon as myfelf? If thofe things 
 which Howard calls beautiful, and thofe 
 which I mould call beautiful, are as diffe- 
 rent as light and darknefs, would it not be 
 better to have fome term totally unconnect- 
 ed
 
 t 11.* 1 
 
 ed with that of beauty, by which fuch objecls 
 as we have juft been looking at, fliould be 
 characlerifed ? By fuch means, you would 
 avoid puzzling us vulgar obfervers with a 
 term, to which we cannot help annexing 
 ideas of what is foft, graceful, elegant, and 
 lovely ; and which, therefore, when applied 
 to hovels, rags, and gypfies, contradi6ts and 
 confounds all our notions and feelings/' 
 
 " The term you require/' anfwered Mr. 
 Hamilton, " has already been invented, for, 
 according to my ideas, the word Piclu- 
 refque, has exactly the meaning you have 
 juft defcribed/' 
 
 " Then/' faid Mr. Seymour, " you do 
 not hold piclurefque and beautiful to be 
 fynonymous/' 
 
 " By no means/' faid he ; " and that is 
 the only difference between Howard and 
 me : in all the effecls that arife from the 
 various combinations of form, colour, and 
 
 light
 
 C 6' 1 
 
 light and fhadow, we agree ; and I am truly 
 forry that we fhould difagree on this diftinc- 
 tion/' 
 
 " No matter/' faid Mr. Seymour; " a 
 friendly difcufTion of this kind, opens the 
 road to truth; and, as I have no prejudice 
 on either fide, I fhall take much delight in 
 hearing your different opinions and argu- 
 ments. Tell me, then, what is your idea 
 of the piclurefque?" 
 
 " That is no eafy queftion," faid Mr. 
 Hamilton, " for to explain my idea of it 
 in detail, would be to talk a volume; but, 
 in reality, you have yourfelf explained a 
 very principal di function between the two 
 characters : the fet of objects we have 
 been looking at, ft ruck you with their 
 fingularity ; but inftead of thinking them 
 beautiful, you were difpofed to call them 
 ugly: now, I fhould neither call them beau- 
 tiful, nor ugly, but piclurefque ; for they 
 
 have
 
 C 
 
 have qualities highly fuited to the painter 
 and his art, but which are, in general, lefs 
 attractive to the bulk of mankind ; whereas 
 the qualities of beauty, are univerfaUy pleaf- 
 ing and alluring to all obfervers/' 
 
 " I muft own," faid Mr. Seymour, " that 
 it is fome relief to me to find, that, according 
 to your doclrine, I am not forced to call an 
 ugly thing beautiful ; yet, Hill, by the help of 
 a middle term, may avoid the offence I mult 
 otherwife give to painters. But what molt 
 furprifes me, and what I wilh you to ex- 
 plain, is, that thofe objects which you and 
 Howard fo much admired, and which he 
 called beautiful, not only appeared to me 
 ugly, but very flrikingly fo : am I, then, to 
 conclude that the more peculiarly and ftrik- 
 ingly ugly an object is, the more charms it 
 has for the painter?" 
 
 " You will be furprifed," faid Mr. Ha- 
 milton, " when I tell you, that what you 
 
 have
 
 C 118 3 
 
 have, perhaps ironically, fuppofed, is in great 
 meafure the cafe/' 
 
 Juft at this time, a man, with fomething of 
 a foreign look, patted by them on the heath, 
 whofe drefs and appearance they could not 
 help flaring at. " There," faid Mr. Seymour, 
 after he had pafled them, " I hope, Hamilton, 
 you are charmed with that figure ! I hope 
 he is fufficiently ugly for you : I fhall not get 
 his image out of my head for fome time ; 
 what a fingularly formed nofe he has, and 
 J^what eyebrows ! how they, and 
 
 his black raven hair, hung over his eyes, and 
 what a dark defigning look in thofe eyes ! 
 then the flouched hat that he wore on one 
 fide, and the fort of cloak he threw acrofs 
 him, as if he were concealing fome wea- 
 pon !" 
 
 " Need I now explain," interrupted Mr. 
 Hamilton, " why an object peculiarly and 
 ftrikingly ugly, is piclurefque ? Were this 
 
 figure,
 
 r 119 n 
 
 figure, juft as you faw him, to be ex- 
 prefled by a painter with exaftntfs and 
 fpirit, would you not be ftruck with it, 
 as you were juft now in nature, and 
 from the fame reafons ? What indeed is 
 the object of an artift, in whatever art ? 
 Not merely to reprefent the foft, the ele- 
 gant, or the dignified and majeftic ; his 
 point is to fix the attention ; if he cannot 
 by grandeur or beauty, he will try to do it 
 by deformity : and indeed, according to Eraf- 
 mus, " quae natura deformia funt, plus ha- 
 *'< bent et artis et voluptatis in tabula." It 
 is not uglinefs, it is infipidity, however ac- 
 companied, that the painter avoids, and with 
 reafon ; for if it deprives even beauty of its 
 attractions, what mull it do when united to 
 uglinefs ? Do you recollect a perfon who 
 pafled by us, a little before you faw this 
 figure that ftruck you fo much ? you muft 
 remember the circumilance, for he bowed 
 
 to
 
 [ 120 3 
 
 to me as he pafTed, and you afked me his 
 hame, but made no further remark, or en- 
 quiry. I, who have often feen him, know 
 that he is as ugly, if not uglier, than the 
 other; a fquat figure; a complexion like 
 tallow ; an unmeaning, pudding face, the 
 marks of the fmall-pox appearing all over 
 it, like bits of fuet through the fkin of a real 
 pudding : a nofe like a potatoe ; and dull, 
 heavy, oyfter-like eyes, juft fuited to his face 
 and perfon. A figure of this kind, drefTed 
 as he was, in a common coat and waiftcoat, 
 and a common fort of wig, excites little or no 
 attention ; and if you do happen to look at 
 it, makes you turn away with mere difguft. 
 Such uglinefs, therefore, neither painters, 
 nor others, pay any attention to; but the 
 painter, from having obferved many ftrong- 
 ly marked peculiarities and effects, which, in 
 the human fpecies, though mixed with ugli- 
 nefs, attract in fome degree the notice of all 
 
 behold-
 
 C i" 3 
 
 beholders, is led to remark fimilar peculiari- 
 ties and effects in inanimate, and confe- 
 quently lefs interesting objects ; while thofe 
 perfons, who have not confidered them in 
 the fame point of view, pafs by them with 
 indifference." 
 
 He had fcarcely done fpeak ing, when they 
 had begun to enter a hollow lane on the oppo- 
 fite fide of the common ; the banks were high 
 and deep ; and the foil, being fand mixed with 
 ftone, had crumbled away in many places 
 from among the junipers, heath and furze, 
 which, with fome thorns, and a few knotty old 
 pollard oaks, and yews, cloathed the fides. 
 
 A little way further, but in fight from the 
 entrance, flood a cottage, which was placed 
 in a dip of the bank near the top ; fome rude 
 fteps led from it into the lane : a few paces 
 from the bottom of thefe fteps, the rill, which 
 ran on the fame fide of the lane, had wafhed 
 away the foil, and formed a fmall pool un- 
 
 i der
 
 C 
 
 der the hollow of the bank : fome large flat 
 ftones flood at the edge of the water; and 
 juft at that moment, a woman and a girl 
 were beating clothes upon them ; a little boy 
 Hood looking on; fome other children fat 
 upon the fteps, and an old woman was 
 leaning over the wicket of the cottage porch, 
 while her dog and cat lay bafking in the fun 
 before it. 
 
 '* I wonder," faid Mr. Seymour, " why 
 they do not clear the fides of this lane a lit- 
 tle, and let in the fun and air ; the foil, in- 
 deed, is naturally dry, but there are ruts 
 and rough places, over which I have already 
 ftumbled two or three times ; it is really im- 
 poflible to walk three together." 
 
 The two others were fo occupied with the 
 fcene, that they hardly heard what he faid, 
 or mifled him as he pafled on before them : 
 and the whole way up the lane, they met 
 with fo many interefting objects, that they 
 
 were
 
 C 12 3 3 
 
 were a long while getting tp the top of the 
 afcent ; where they difcovered their compa- 
 nion feated under a fpreading tree, and gaz- 
 ing with delight, on what they began to look 
 at with no lefs rapture. It was one of thofe 
 views, which only fuch perfons as are infen- 
 fible, or affectedly faftidious, ever look at, 
 or fpeak of, without pleafure; though the 
 chief circum fiances are familiar to all men. 
 both in reality, and defcription : it was an 
 extenfive view over a rich country, in which 
 a river fometimes appeared in full fplendour, 
 and again was concealed within its woody 
 banks ; the whole bounded by diftant hills 
 of the mod graceful form. 
 
 The place where Mr. Seymour fat, was 
 juft where the lane ended, and fuddenly wi- 
 dened into an open part, whence there was 
 a gentle defcent towards the plain ; and to 
 the broken and fhaggy banks, fucceeded a 
 foft turf, interfperfed with a few trees, rif- 
 i 2 ing
 
 C 12 4 3 
 
 ing from amidft tufts of fern, and patches 
 of thorn and juniper. The road continued 
 winding towards the village, which flood 
 about half way down the hill, and looked at 
 once both gay and modeft, from the mix- 
 ture of trees among the houfes : the church, 
 with its tower and battlements, crowned the 
 whole. To the right of the road and of the 
 village, and fomewhat lower, was an an- 
 cient manfion, the turrets of which appeared 
 above the trees, while the offices, being 
 built in the fame ftyle, moft happily group- 
 ed with the principal building, and with the 
 woods and thickets of the park. Beyond it, 
 in the more diftant country, a handfome 
 (tone bridge of feveral arches feen obliquely, 
 crofled the river, and carried the eye to- 
 wards a large city 
 
 " With glittering spires and pinnacles adorn'd." 
 
 " What can you have been doing fo long 
 in that hollow way," faid Mr. Seymour, as he 
 
 rofe
 
 C 
 
 rofe from his feat. " I did not fee any gyp- 
 fies, afles, or broken panniers ; but, now 
 you are come, do tell me if you ever faw 
 any thing half fo enchanting as this view, 
 either in nature, or in painting ? I do not 
 know, indeed, whether I ought to call it beau- 
 tiful, or piclurefque; nor do I know whe- 
 ther you connoifleurs, deign to admire, or 
 whether painters deign to reprefent, what 
 the common herd are pleafed with." 
 
 " You do us and the painters great in- 
 juftice," anfwered Mr. Howard; " the moft 
 celebrated of all the landfcape painters, re- 
 prefented fuch popular fcenes as thefe; not 
 indeed without making fuch alterations as 
 his art required, and his experience fuggeft- 
 ed : but in regard to the view before us, it 
 happens that thofe breaks in the foreground, 
 thofe feparations of the diftance by means 
 of trees that rife above the horizon, and all 
 thofe circum fiances of compofition, which 
 i 3 are
 
 c "6 : 
 
 are more peculiarly attended to by the pain- 
 ter, are here, in a great degree, united with 
 thofe general and popular beauties, that de- 
 light all mankind/' 
 
 " Tou, therefore/' faid Mr. Seymour, 
 " would call this fcene indifferently either 
 beautiful, or piclurefque?" " Certainly/' 
 anfwered Mr. Howard? "And you?" ad- 
 dreffing himfelf to Mr. Hamilton. 
 
 " I," faid he, " if I were to fpeak of its 
 general character, fhould call it beautiful, 
 and not piclurefque ; becaufe thofe circum- 
 llances which all mankind acknowledge to 
 be beautiful, infinitely prevail. For the fame 
 reafon, I mould call the lane which we have 
 juft pafled, piclurefque; and that it does not 
 fuit the general tafte, you have given a ftrong 
 proof, who feem by no means infenfible to 
 another ftyle of fcenery: nothing detained 
 you there every thing detained us," 
 
 " Well/' faid Mr. Seymour, "it is time, 
 likewife, to quit this beautiful fpot, (for that 
 
 is
 
 C 137 3 
 
 is the term I mult life when I am highly 
 pleafed,) and get on to the houfe, where you 
 tell me there are many fine pictures, and 
 where I am to receive my firlt leflbn." 
 
 They then began to defcend towards the 
 village, which, as they approached, prefent- 
 ed a pleafing and chearful appearance. The 
 church was placed upon a fmall eminence, 
 and in the churchyard were fome large elms, 
 and two venerable old yews : one of them 
 flood in front, and hung over the road, the 
 top of the tower appearing above it; the 
 other was behind the church, but great part 
 of its boughs advanced beyond the end of 
 the chancel, the window of which was feen 
 fideways againft it. 
 
 On the oppofite fide of the road, was 
 the parfonage- houfe, which exhibited a 
 fingular mixture of neatnefs and irregu- 
 larity. Something feemed to have been 
 added by each incumbent, juft as a room, 
 a ftaircafe, or a paflage was wanting: 
 i 4 there
 
 r 128 3 
 
 there were all kinds of projections; of differ- 
 ently fhaped windows and - chimneys; of 
 rooms in odd corners ; of roofs crofTing each 
 other in different directions. This curious 
 old fabric was kept in the higheft order; 
 part of it was rough-caft ; part only white- 
 wafhed'; but the whole of a pleafing quiet 
 colour: vines, rofes, jafmines, and honey- 
 fuckles, flourifhed againft the walls, and 
 hung over the old-fafhioned porch ; a luxu- 
 riant Virginia creeper grew quite to the top 
 of a mafi'y ftone chimney; and fhrubs, and 
 fruit-trees, were very happily difpofed, fo as, 
 in fome degree, to difguife and connecl the 
 extreme irregularity of the building. 
 
 They were all much pleafed with the neat- 
 nefs and comfortable look of this dwelling, 
 and with the whole fcenery round it. " If 
 I were not afraid of worrying you/' faid Mr. 
 Seymour, " I could wifli to know what title 
 you would give to this building: where I fee 
 fo much neatnefs, chearfulnefs and comfort, 
 
 I am
 
 C 129 ] 
 
 I am inclined to call the whole, if not beau- 
 tiful, at leaft pretty, and pleaiing ; and yet 
 it is fo ftrangely irregular, and has fo little 
 of any thing like defign or fymmetry, that 
 I am in doubt whether I may venture to call 
 it any thing but odd." 
 
 " You put me in mind of the French/' 
 faid Mr. Hamilton ; " when they are afraid 
 of rifqiiing too ferious a commendation, they 
 often fay, * mais, c'eft aflez drole !' and you 
 have taken fomething of the fame cautious 
 method, for fear of fhocking me with an im- 
 proper term. I, of courfe, imagine, that 
 your queftion refers to the diftinclion, about 
 which Howard and I are not agreed ; and 
 if you are really defirous that I fhould read 
 a lecture on the fubjecl with refpecl to build- 
 ings, I never can have a better opportu- 
 nity/' 
 
 " Take care," faid Mr. Howard, laughing, 
 " how you get entangled among thefe nice 
 
 diftinc-
 
 C 
 
 diftinclions ; there is a fort of purfuit which 
 leads us further from the game what 
 fportfmen call, running heel." 
 
 " I know," faid Mr. Hamilton, " what I 
 rifque with fuch a keen adverfary as you 
 are ; and our friend there, preferves a fort of 
 armed neutrality, and will not allow any 
 thing to pafs under the pretence of eftablifh- 
 ed cuftom ; but the whole of this diftinclion 
 appears to me fo clear and fatisfaclory, that 
 I cannot help flattering myfelf with the 
 hope of making it equally fo to others: in 
 reality, before Seymour put the queftion to 
 me, I had been confidering this fingular, old 
 houfe, and thought it quite a thing made for 
 a lecture; and I will now begin it. You 
 muft know then, Seymour, (for I do not 
 addrefs myfelf to that fcoffer at thefe dif- 
 tinclions) that irregularity is one of the prin- 
 cipal caufes of the pi6htrefque ; and as the 
 general appearance of this building is in a 
 
 very
 
 C '3i 3 
 
 very great degree irregular, fo far it is highly 
 pi6turefque : but, then, another caufe, is fad- 
 den and abrupt deviation. Do you remem- 
 ber the hovel where the gypfies were ? how 
 the roof was funk in parts ; the thatch rag- 
 ged and uneven ; the walls broken, and 
 bulging out in various directions ? you 
 certainly muft alfo recollecl the weather- 
 llains and concretions, on the walls and the 
 wood-work ; for I very well remember your 
 furprize at hearing the term beautiful ap- 
 plied to them : now, the clean, even colour 
 of this houfe, if contrafted with the mouldy 
 tints of the hovel, might almoft be called 
 beautiful. That hovel was finiply piclu- 
 refque, without any quality that approached 
 to what is beautiful, or to what would be 
 likely to give pleafure to die generality of 
 mankind : this, like many other buildings, 
 has a mixture of both qualities; but their 
 limits happen to be particularly diftincl : and 
 
 if
 
 if what we have been converfmg upon, has 
 made any impreffion on your mind, I am 
 fure you will fee at once, by what means 
 this building would become merely piclu- 
 refque/' 
 
 " That," faid Mr. Seymour, " does not 
 require much confideration ; only let it be 
 neglecled for a few years, it will be as full 
 of moulds, ftains, and broken parts, and as 
 much out of the perpendicular, as any pain- 
 ter could wifti ; and would afford little plea- 
 fure to any but painters and connoifleurs. 
 On the other hand, as irregularity, by your 
 account, is fo principal a caufe of the pic- 
 turefque, I no lefs eafily can conceive, that 
 if a handfome, regular front were put to 
 this old houfe, it would be as far from being 
 piclurefque, as, in the other cafe, it would 
 be far from being beautiful/' 
 
 At this time, the clergyman came into the 
 garden, with his daughter; and being an 
 
 old
 
 C J 33 3 
 
 old acquaintance of Mr. Hamilton's, defired 
 them to walk in. This gave them an op- 
 portunity of looking round the whole of the 
 premifes, and of afking fome queftions a- 
 bout the manfion-houfe, and the grounds. 
 
 " You will find the place much altered," 
 faid the clergyman to Mr. Hamilton, " fince 
 you were here : you may perhaps recollect 
 fome fine tall trees in front of the houfe ; 
 at leaft you muft remember the old terras, 
 and the baluftrade with urns and flower- 
 pots on it, and the flight of fteps that led 
 down into the lower garden, where the fta- 
 tues and cyprefles were. The trees I am 
 fpeaking of, were towards the end of that 
 garden, a little to the left ; they were cut 
 down two years ago ; and I who have 
 known them for thefe forty years, and often 
 fat under their (hade, exceedingly regret 
 them : it may be prejudice ; but I declare I 
 do not think the view looks fo well, now 
 
 they
 
 C 134 3 
 
 they are away, though one fees a greater 
 expanfe of country. The terras, too, and 
 the old garden the flatues, and all the fine 
 ornaments, are gone ; and yet, in my judg- 
 ment, they fuited the ftately old manfion : 
 they were, Mr. Hamilton, the " veterum 
 decora alta parentum ;" and put one in mind 
 of the magnificence of ancient times. The 
 river, too, is very much widened, and as 
 they fay improved : you, perhaps, will 
 think me an old-fafhioned fellow, and fond 
 of every thing I remember in my youth ; 
 but for my part, I liked it better, when, 
 though fmaller, it had its own natural 
 wooded bank, like the little brook behind 
 my houfe, that you all feemed fo much 
 pleafed with. There have been many other 
 alterations, and they are now doing a great 
 deal to different parts of the ground, and 
 have made a new approach ; but you can- 
 not mifs your way, if you turn to the right 
 
 at
 
 C 135 D 
 
 at the end of the village, where you will fee 
 a ftone foot-bridge over the brook, and a 
 cottage, very much covered with ivy, clofe 
 by it." 
 
 " I think/' faid Mr. Seymour, as they 
 were walking on, " that the good old par- 
 fon's daughter is made upon the model of 
 her father's houfe : her features are as irre- 
 gular, and her eyes are fomewhat inclined 
 to look acrofs each other, like the roofs of 
 the old parfonage ; but a clear fkin, clean 
 white teeth, though not very even, and a 
 look of neatnefs and chearfulnefs, in fpite 
 of thefe irregularities, made me look at her 
 with pleafure; and, I really think, if I were 
 of the cloth, I mould like very well to take 
 to the living, the houfe, and its inhabitant. 
 You, Hamilton, I fuppofe, were thinking, 
 how age and neglect would operate upon 
 her as upon the houfe, and how fimply 
 piclurefque (he would become, when her 
 
 cheeks
 
 C 136 ] 
 
 cheeks were a little furrowed and weather- 
 ftained, and her teeth had got a flight in- 
 cruftation." 
 
 " No indeed/' faid the other, " I thought 
 of her much as you did ; and I was reflect- 
 ing how great a conformity there is between 
 our taftes for the fex, and for other objects ; 
 though Howard, I know, holds a very dif- 
 ferent opinion. Here is a houfe and a wo- 
 man, without fymmetry or beauty ; and yet 
 many might prefer them both, to fuch as 
 had infinitely more of what they, and the 
 world, would acknowledge to be regularly 
 beautiful : but then, again, deprive the wo- 
 man, or the houfe, of thofe qualities that 
 are analogous to beauty, and you will hardly 
 find any man fond enough of the pictu- 
 refque, to make the fort of proportion you 
 have juft been making/' 
 
 " I muft own/' faid Mr. Howard, " that 
 I do object to this kind of analogy : I do 
 
 not
 
 C 
 
 not like the habit men are in, of flying for 
 allufions to the inclination of the fexes to- 
 wards each other ; for that being the ftrong- 
 eft of our inclinations, it draws all others 
 into its vortex, and thus becomes the cri- 
 terion of pleafures, with which it has no 
 further connection, than being derived from 
 the fame animal functions with the reft." 
 
 " I agree with you entirely/' faid Mr. 
 Hamilton, " that in any cafe where that in- 
 clination was really made the criterion of 
 other pleafures, or other taftes, we fhould 
 reafon on falfe grounds : I believe, however, 
 you will feldom find any inftance of that 
 fort. Do but recollect: what women you 
 have known men to be paffionately in love 
 with : fome fhort and fat ; fome tall and 
 fkinny; fome with a little turn-up nofe, a 
 fmall gimlet eye, a dufky fldn, or one co- 
 vered with freckles : and yet did you ever 
 know one of thefe lovers fo biafled by his 
 K particular
 
 C 138 3 
 
 particular fancy, as to infift upon it that 
 thefe were criteria, and univerfal principles 
 of beuty ? or who was not ready to ac- 
 kfto^le^ge the fuperior, though, to him, 
 lefs interefting, beauty of other women, 
 whofe Iperfons differed in every refpect from 
 that of the object of his paffion r I have 
 as ffttle foutod, that the partiality we feel for 
 our own fpecies, has made us think it a 
 ftandard for beauty in other objects ; on 
 the contrary, we are perpetually borrowing 
 images from other animals, for the purpofe 
 of conveying a higher idea of beauty, or of 
 character : the eye of the eagle, the dove, 
 the ox, are ufed to exprefs keennefs, mild- 
 nefs, or fulnefs ; the neck of a beautiful wo- 
 man is compared to that of a fwan ; and num- 
 berlefs comparifons are drawn from animate 
 and inanimate objects, in order to heighten the 
 idea of human beauty. On the other hand, 
 when a compliment is to be paid to an ani- 
 mal,
 
 C 139 3 
 
 mal, it is drawn from the more acknow- 
 ledged fource of human fuperiority ; as 
 " the half-reafoning elephant" in Pope ; 
 and Rinaldo's famous horfe Bajardo, of 
 whom Ariofto fays, " Che avea intelletto 
 " umano/' But I fee we are juft arrived 
 at the gate, and luckily there is a fervant 
 coming towards us/' 
 
 The fervant knew Mr. Hamilton, and 
 conducted them into the houfe ; and as they 
 were impatient to fee the pictures, they 
 pafied at once into the gallery, which con- 
 tained a great variety of them, and by 
 matters of all the different fchools. 
 
 " Here/' faid Mr. Seymour, " we fliall 
 have ample room for difcuffing the fubjecl: 
 of the beautiful and the piclurefque in 
 painting : I have already had a very good 
 lecture on real objects. Tell me, Howard, 
 do you as little agree to Hamilton's diftinc- 
 tions here, as in nature ? do you make rough 
 
 K 2 and
 
 C 
 
 and fmooth, gradual and abrupt in fliort, 
 all that he keeps feparate tend to one 
 point, to beauty only ? or do you allow of 
 his diftin&ions in works of art, though not 
 in real objects ?" 
 
 " I equally deny them in both/' faid he; 
 " I hold, that between the extremes of mo- 
 notony either of colour or furface, and fuch 
 harlhnefs of either as produces a difagree- 
 able fenfation, lyes that grateful medium of 
 grateful irritation, which produces the fen- 
 fation of what we call beauty, and which, 
 in vifible objects, is called pifturefque beauty; 
 becaufe painting, as I obferved to you be- 
 fore, by imitating the vifible qualities only, 
 difcriminates it from the objects of the other 
 fenfes with which it may be combined, and 
 which, if productive of ftronger impreffions, 
 either of pleafure or difguft, will overpower 
 it: fo that a mind not habituated to fuch 
 difcrimi nations, or (as more commonly ex- 
 
 prefled )
 
 C 14* 3 
 
 prefled ) a perfon not pofTefTed of a painter's 
 eye, does not difcover it till feparated in the 
 artift's imitation." 
 
 " This appears to me/' faid Mr. Sey- 
 mour, " to be a very juft way of accounting 
 for the tafte, which lovers of painting ac- 
 quire for fuch objects ; and I eafily conceive 
 how a relifh for them in painting, may beget 
 fuch a relifh for them in reality, as may be 
 ftrong enough to overcome the difguft of 
 many naufeous accompaniments: but I will 
 look round the room, and tell you freely 
 what effect the pictures which happen to 
 ftrike me, have upon my unlearned eye, and 
 how far they feem to me to confirm, or con- 
 tradict, your doctrine. I am glad to fee that 
 the names of the painters are written on the 
 frames: to you that is, probably, almofl 
 ufelefs ; but to me, it will be very conve- 
 nient ; for although the mere names of fome 
 of the principal painters, like thofe of the 
 K 3 ancient
 
 C 
 
 ancient Greek artifts, are familiar to me, yet 
 I muft own to my fhame, that I am almoft 
 as little acquainted with their works, as with 
 thofe of Parrhafius, or Protogenes. I fhall 
 begin at once with this large picture oppo- 
 fite to us, which has the name of Rubens 
 upon it; for there is an air of fplendour in 
 every part of it, that is very firiking. There 
 feems, alfo, to be a great deal of action and 
 energy ; tho' I cannot fay much for the grace 
 or elegance either of his men or women : he 
 really, however, has made amends in his 
 horfes ; that one particularly, with the flow- 
 ing, white mane, is a moft beautiful animal, 
 and, I may add, in the higheft condition ; a 
 great merit in real horfes, and, if I may judge 
 from this fpecimen, no lefs fo in thofe that 
 are painted. You know I have a paf- 
 fion for horfes, and I am delighted to fee 
 them, according to my notions, fo finely 
 reprefented." 
 
 " Rubens,"
 
 C '43 3 
 
 " Rubens," faid Mr Howard, "had the 
 fame paOion; and as he kept a number of 
 horfes, which, probably, were very beauti- 
 ful, and in high order, he painted them truly 
 after nature. I do not wonder at your being 
 {truck with that horfe, and with the efie& 
 of his white mane; nothing can be more 
 brilliant than the touches of light upon it, 
 and upon the foam on his mouth ; yet you 
 fee thofe touches, and the whole of that 
 inafs of white, are in perfedt harmony with 
 the reft of the piclure. But you muft not 
 negle6t that other large picture, which makes 
 a companion to this : it is by Paul Veronefe, 
 a painter of the Venetian fchool, from whom 
 Rubens caught that general air of fplendotir 
 you fojuftly admire/' 
 
 *' There is indeed/' faid Mr. Seymour, 
 " a moft impofing air of fplendour and 
 magnificence throughout the whole of it : I 
 do not perceive, I mult own, any thing of 
 
 K 4, intereft
 
 C H4 D 
 
 intereft or expreffion, in the very numerous 
 company of well-drefied perfons he has 
 brought together; but the richnefs of the 
 drefles, the profufion of ornaments, and 
 above all the aflemblage of fuperb buildings, 
 would make a ftrong impreflion on me, if I 
 were to fee them in reality, juft as they ap- 
 pear in this painting: this may not always be 
 a proper criterion, but it is a very natural one 
 for an ignorant man to refort to/* 
 
 te As you have admired the fplendour of 
 Rubens in that hiftorical picture," faid Mr. 
 Howard, " you muft now look at thofe land- 
 fcapes by him, which are not lefs fplendid : 
 and firft obferve this fingular and brilliant 
 effect of the fun-beams burlting through a 
 dark wood/' 
 
 " It is more than brilliant/' replied Mr. 
 Seymour. " it is perfectly dazzling ; and a 
 moft extraordinary imitation of real light, 
 when broken by leaves and branches. That 
 
 other
 
 C 
 
 other picture of the thunder-ltorm, is not 
 lefs linking : nothing can be more finely 
 conceived, or more terrific, than the oppofi- 
 tion of fuch extreme blacknefs in the clouds 
 that hang over the mountain, to the lighten- 
 ing, and the glaring ftream of light, which 
 feems to pour down upon the buildings be- 
 low it. Such effects in nature ftrike the 
 moft infenfible perfons, but I ihould fuppofe 
 it muft be extremely difficult to reprefent 
 them in painting; the ancients at lead appear 
 to have thought it nexttoimpoflible, if I may 
 judge from what Pliny (fome what affectedly) 
 fays of Apelles ; " pinxit et quse pingi non 
 " pofftint; tonitrua, fulgetra, fulguraque." 
 Mr. Seymour then went on, looking at 
 many of the pictures, but not flopping long 
 at any of them, till he came to one of Claude 
 Lorraine. " This," faid he, after (landing 
 fome time before it, and examining it with 
 great attention, " is what I hardly expected, 
 
 though
 
 C 
 
 though I believe you gave me a hint of it 
 when we were looking at the profpect from 
 the hill ; and really the view in this picture 
 is not unlike that real view : it is feen in the 
 fame manner between trees ; and the river, 
 the bridge, the diftant buildings, and hills, 
 are nearly in a fimiiar fituation. I have 
 great pleafure in feeing the fame foft lights, 
 the fame general glow which we admired in 
 the real landscape, reprefented with fuch 
 Ikill, that, now the true fplendour of the 
 fun is no longer before us, the picture feems 
 nature itfelf. This, I imagine, muft be the 
 painter you alluded to, when I aiked you 
 whether fuch views were ever painted : what 
 a picture would this be to have in one's fit- 
 ting room ! to have always before one fuch 
 an image of fine weather, fuch a happy 
 mixture of warmth and frefhnefs 1 a fcene 
 where one imagines that every other fenfe 
 mufl be charmed, as well as that of feeing ! 
 
 Indeed,
 
 C H7 3 
 
 Indeed, Howard, thistends very much tocon- 
 firm what you have been faying; for, as allthe 
 objects here are really charming, they have 
 no need of being feparated from what might 
 affect the other fenfes, by the artift's imita- 
 tion : I am very fure at lead that it is not 
 necefTary to have a painter's eye in order to 
 admire this picture. I fear, however, I 
 (hall look at nothing elfe \vith pleafure, and 
 I hardly know how to quit it." 
 
 " You may come to it again by and by," 
 faid Mr. Howard, " but do look at this pic- 
 ture of Teniers ; and you will own that he 
 has produced (and fo have many of the 
 Dutch fchool,) the mod beautiful pidtures, 
 by the mod exact imitation of the mod ugly 
 and difgufting objects in nature: and yet, 
 as I obferved before, it is phyfically impolli- 
 ble that an exact imitation fhould exhibit 
 qualities not exifting in its original/' 
 
 " I do allow/' faid Mr. Seymour, after 
 looking at it for fome time, ** that this is an 
 
 admirable
 
 C 148 3 
 
 admirable imitation ; and I own likewife, 
 that if what the woman is washing and 
 cleaning, were real tripes, gats, and garbage, 
 the fenfe of fmelling, and animal difguft, 
 would prevent any pleafure I might have 
 (if pleafure there could be) in fuch a fight. 
 This certainly is merely the pleafure arifmg 
 from imitation ; I mean, as far as the hogs- 
 puddings are concerned ; for there are other 
 parts neither ugly nor difgu fling : that group 
 of boys, for inftance, who are blowing bub- 
 bles, I ihould look at with pleafure in na- 
 ture ; and many parts of the building are 
 what Hamilton would call pifturefque, for 
 they are broken and irregular ; and although 
 they have nothing of beauty, they at lead 
 have nothing offenfive. 
 
 " You have given this very extraordinary 
 piece of art as an inftance, that the moft beau- 
 tiful pictures may be produced by the moft 
 ugly and difguftingobje6ts: I mu ft fay, that if 
 Hamilton grants you this in the ftricl fenfe of 
 
 the
 
 C '49 3 
 
 the word, it will bear very hard upon his dif- 
 tinclions, and indeed upon all diftinclionson 
 this fubjecl ; but tell me, has not your eager- 
 nefs to oppofe his new-fangled doclrines, 
 betrayed you into fomething a little like fo- 
 phiftry ? Is it not clear, that by beautiful, 
 you only mean excellent ? and that in the 
 prefent cafe the term would be quite abfurd 
 in any other fenfe ? If fo, neither Hamilton, 
 nor any one elfe will deny that the moft 
 beautiful, that is, the moft excellent pictures, 
 may be produced by any objects whatever ; 
 though I, for one, do moft ftrenuoufly deny 
 that the moft beautiful, that is, the moft 
 lovely, pictures, can be produced by the 
 ' moft unlovely objecls. 
 
 " Thefe incongruities ftrike us lefs, perhaps, 
 in our own language; but how often have 
 you and I been furprifed and diverted at the 
 exprellions we have heard foreigners make 
 ule of, that feemed infinitely too grand for 
 the occafion ! If a Frenchman, for inftance, 
 
 were
 
 C 150 3 
 
 were now to come into the room, and we 
 were to fhew him this picture, it is a great 
 chance if he did not exclaim, " c'eft fu- 
 perbe ! c'eft magnifique!" for we have often 
 heard thofe two words full as fingularly ap- 
 plied: and thence, my good friend, you 
 might with equal fairnefs conclude, that the 
 moft ftiperb and magnificent piclures, may 
 be produced by the meaneft and moft filthy 
 objects. Now, if we were afterwards to 
 take the fame Frenchman to the two large 
 pictures we firft looked at, he could not 
 find any ftronger terms to exprefs his admi- 
 ration of them, than fuperb and magnifi- 
 cent ; but if he were an unprejudiced man, 
 he would certainly allow, that thofe terms 
 diflinclly characterized the peculiar excel- 
 lence and ftyle of thofe two piclures ; while 
 in the cafe of this Teniers, they were mere- 
 ly ftrong expreflions of praife, without any 
 other meaning. 
 
 " If all this be true, if fuch expreflions 
 
 often
 
 c 151 n 
 
 often convey nothing more than general 
 commendation, the whole feems to me very 
 fimple; there is no longer any queftion about 
 phyfical impoflibility, or the exhibition of 
 qualities which do not exift in the original. 
 The hog's infide, in this exact imitation, is 
 neither more nor lefs beautiful, or magnifi- 
 cent, than a real one in a real back -kitchen ; 
 and the picture itfelf, according to my no- 
 tions, is neither more nor lefs entitled to 
 either of thofe epithets, than any other well- 
 painted picture, without any one circum- 
 ftance of beauty, or magnificence. The 
 painter, it is true, has very fkilfully diftri- 
 buted his colours, and his lights and fha- 
 dows, fo that all is highly natural ; and the 
 harmony of the whole pleafes my unprac- 
 tifed eye, now 1 have been taught to reflect 
 upon it : but I muft again repeat, that the 
 term beautiful, applied to a pi6ture without 
 a fmgle beautiful object in it, and with fiame 
 
 very
 
 c 152 3 
 
 very ugly and nafty ones, is ufed, if not 
 in a licentious, at leafl in a very vague 
 fenfe : fo I will go back to the Claude, 
 where I know and feel, that the whole, and 
 every part, is beautiful." 
 
 " Stay/' faid Mr. Hamilton, " do not 
 pafs by this Magdalen of Guido for mere 
 landfcape." 
 
 " I did not obferve it," faid Mr. Sey- 
 mour, " perhaps from its being hung higher 
 than the reft ; and I am much obliged to 
 you for flopping me. Good God ! what a 
 difference it makes, when, with the fame 
 harmony and foftnefs, there is fuch exqui- 
 fite beauty of form ! not only in the face, 
 and in the turn of the body, but where one 
 fhould lefs ex peel it : look at that foot ; 
 it has fuch elegance of fhape, and purity, 
 and delicacy of colour, that it almoft rivals 
 the face ; when the term beautiful is ap- 
 plied to fuch a picture, how fully do we feel 
 
 and
 
 C 153 3 
 
 and acknowledge its propriety ! If you 
 quit this, Howard, and return to your Te- 
 niers, I fhall fay you have a depraved ap- 
 petite, that 
 
 " Sates itself in a celestial bed, 
 " And preys on garbage." 
 
 But as I am here for my inftruclion, I muft 
 quit it myfelf for the prefent, and look at 
 other pictures. What is that which hangs 
 next to it, with ftrong, harm lights, and the 
 men looking like ruffians ? I fee the name 
 is Spagnolet : I dare fay, it has great charms 
 for connoifleurs, as well as that oppofite to 
 it, on the other fide of the Magdalen, which 
 I fuppofe is by the fame hand : no, I fee 
 there is another name-- Michael Angelo 
 Caravaggio : what amazingly deep fha- 
 dows, and what a fmgular light ftrikes 
 upon that man's fhoulder, and then upon 
 the boy's cheek ! it is a mixture of mid-day 
 and mid-night : the characters I do not like, 
 L and
 
 C 154 3 
 
 and the whole is a ftrong contrail to the 
 foftnefs and delicacy of that charming Mag- 
 dalen." 
 
 " Let me fhew you/' faid Mr. Howard, 
 " what is as ftrong a contraft to your other 
 favourite, the Claude, as thefe are to the 
 Guido : it is this landlcape, with banditti, 
 by Salvator Rofa, a painter of a wild, ori- 
 ginal genius, and of whom I am a moft en- 
 thufiaftic admirer. We did not perfe6Hy 
 agree about the laft picture I pointed out 
 to you ; perhaps I may be more lucky this 
 time : I think, at leaft, you will like it a 
 good deal better than thofe on each fide of 
 the Magdalen/' 
 
 <c I do indeed/' faid he; "there is a fubli- 
 mity in this fcene of rocks and mountains, fa- 
 vage and defolate as they are, that is very 
 ftriking : the whole, as you fay, is a perfect 
 contraft to the Claude ; and it is really curious 
 to look from the one to the other. In that, 
 
 every
 
 C 155 3 
 
 t every thing feems formed to delight the eye, 
 and the mind of man ; in this, to alarm and 
 I terrify the imagination : in the Claude, the 
 inhabitants infpire us with ideas of peace, 
 fecurity, and happinefs ; in this of Salvator, 
 (for I now recollect and feel the full force 
 of thofe lines I only admired before) 
 
 ** Appears in burnish'd arms some savage band : 
 
 " Each figure boldly pressing into life, 
 
 " And breathing blood, calamity, and strife."* 
 
 In that fvveet fcene, the recefles amidft 
 frefh woods and ftreams, feem bowers 
 made for repofe and love ; in this, they are 
 caves of death, the haunts of wild beads 
 
 " Or savage men, more dreadful far than they." 
 
 What a ftormy, portentous appearance in 
 thofe clouds, that roll over the dark moun- 
 tains, and threaten, further on, ftill greater 
 defolation ! while that mild evening iky, 
 and foft tinge upon the diftant hills, feem 
 
 * The Landfcape, page 7, lino 88. 
 
 L 2 tO
 
 t 156 3 
 
 to promife, if poffible, ftill more charming 
 fcenes beyond them !' 
 
 " Why, Seymour," faid Mr. Howard, 
 " you talk with more enthufiafm on the 
 fubje6l, than either Hamilton or myfelf \" 
 
 " Where there is fo much poetry in pic- 
 tures," anfwered he, " it is not neceffary 
 to have a painter's eye to enjoy them ; al- 
 though I am well perfuaded, that a know- 
 ledge of the art would greatly enhance the 
 pleafure." 
 
 " As you are fo much delighted with the 
 poetry of the art," faid Mr. Hamilton, " you 
 muft look at thefe pictures by Nicholas Pouf- 
 fin, a French painter, and one of the bright- 
 eft ornaments, not only of his own fchool, 
 but of the art itfelf. He is one of the moft 
 learned and claflical of the painters, and 
 equally excellent in figures and in land- 
 fcape ; as I think you will fee, when you 
 examine this Bacchanalian." 
 
 " I fee
 
 C '57 ] 
 
 ' I fee at the firft glance/' replied Mr. 
 Seymour, " a great deal of beauty, grace, 
 and expreflion, in the figures ; and, as you 
 obferved, there is a certain antique and 
 claflical character in them, that gives to 
 their grace and beauty a different caft, from 
 that which I admired in the Magdalen. 
 Without being any judge of the compofi- 
 tion of landfcape, I admire very much the 
 richnefs of thofe trees, with vine-leaves and 
 cluflers of grapes mixed with their foliage, 
 and hanging from them in feftoons. Such a 
 mixture, befides its real beauty, is particu- 
 larly ftriking to an Englifh eye, as it marks 
 a warmer climate and a more luxuriant 
 vegetation than our's, and is therefore per- 
 fectly in unifon with the fcene, where the 
 action may be fuppofed to have pafled : 
 the general glow of the colouring no lefs 
 happily accords with the fubject : indeed, 
 it is in every refpect, a moft enchanting 
 picture. 
 
 L 3 But
 
 C 158 3 
 
 " But I fee that the name of Pouflin is 
 alfo on that picture of the Crucifixion. I 
 fuppofe it mufl be fome other painter of 
 the fame name, for I never faw any thing 
 more harm and difcordant than the colours 
 appear to my eye, or more completely dif- 
 ferent from thofe of the Bacchanalian : and 
 yet," continued he, " now I am nearer to 
 it, the expreffions are very ftriking ; efpe- 
 eially that of the foldier, who perceives the 
 dead rifing from their graves/' 
 
 " It is more eafy," faid Mr. Hamilton, 
 " to judge of Pouflm (for there is but one 
 hiflorical painter of that name) by his cha- 
 racters and expreffions, in which he very 
 uniformly excelled, than by his colouring, 
 in which no one was ever more different 
 from himfelf : in the prefent inftance, it is 
 poifible that thefe harm colours, and this 
 ilrong oppofition of them, may have defign- 
 edly been introduced, from an idea (I hardly 
 think a juft one) that they fuited the terror 
 
 of
 
 C '59 3 
 
 of the fubje<ft. In that other piclure of his 
 the Deluge I believe you will be of opi- 
 nion, that the colouring and the fubjecl are 
 more happily adapted to each other." 
 
 " I am indeed," anfwered Mr. Seymour; 
 " I feel very fenfibly, that the famenefs and 
 deadnefs of the general hue, perfectly ac- 
 cords with my conceptions of fuch a fcene : 
 and, as he has (hewn in the Bacchanalian, 
 that he knew how to give the moft animated 
 glow to his colours, when the occafion cal- 
 led for it, I muft attribute this total abfence 
 of all brilliancy and variety, to great judg- 
 ment and reflection." 
 
 " You have, perhaps unknowingly," faid 
 Mr. Howard, " been paying a compliment 
 to yourfelf, in (hewing fo much admiration 
 of PoufTin ; for he has been called " Le 
 " peintre des gens d'efprit." 
 
 " It was indeed unknowingly," replied 
 
 Mr. Seymour ; " but whatever interpreta- 
 
 L 4 tion
 
 C '&> 3 
 
 tioti yoa may put on it, I cannot help 
 faying, that he feems to deferve his ti- 
 tle : but I muft tell you, Howard, that one 
 thing ftrikes me, in confequence of the ex- 
 treme contraft that I have remarked be- 
 tween many of the pictures; and the reft 
 of them will probably furmfh more ex- 
 amples. You fay, that between the two 
 extremes of monotony and harfhnefs, lyes 
 the grateful medium of grateful irritation, 
 which is called beauty, or piclurefque beau- 
 ty : now, I muft fay, that this is a rnoft 
 extenfive medium ; for, among the pictures 
 that we have been looking at, there are 
 fome as near as poffible to abfolute mono- 
 tony ; and others, which are clearly in- 
 tended to produce as much irritation, as can 
 well be produced by ftrong, fudden con- 
 trafts, of every kind. It feems to me, 
 therefore, that, according to your fyftem, 
 whatever is not abfolute monotony, or ab- 
 folute
 
 C 
 
 iblute difcord, is pofitive beauty ; or, if you 
 pleafe, picturefque beauty : for that epi- 
 thet, taken in your fenfe, only confines the 
 term to vifible objects, but makes no other 
 difcrimination." 
 
 " I flatter myfeif," faid Mr. Howard, 
 " that as you become more converfant \vith 
 pictures, you will come over to my opinion, 
 and perceive that there is really no fuch dif- 
 crimination as Hamilton imagines; I there- 
 fore appeal from your prefent to your future 
 judgment/' 
 
 46 My prefent judgment/' replied Mr. 
 Seymour, " muft be very crude, as being 
 formed on what has ftruck me at the mo- 
 ment: I ihall mod willingly fufpend it, 
 till I am better inftructed, which I hope to 
 be in a fhort time, if I continue picture- 
 hunting with you and Hamilton; and I af- 
 fure you, alfo, that what I have juft feen, has 
 amufed and interefted me much more than 
 
 I fhould
 
 I fhould have expected; probably on ac- 
 count of the difcuffion that has taken place. 
 At prefent, indeed, I find I liave no relifh 
 for many of the pictures which you feem 
 to admire; for unlefs there be fomething 
 obvioufly grand, or beautiful, according to 
 my notions, what you call grandeur or beau- 
 ty of ftyle, has little effect upon me. I muft, 
 how. ver, except thefe fmall Dutch pictures ; 
 for though the fubjects are mean, and the 
 figures without grace or dignity, yet their 
 characters, actions, and expreffions, are fo 
 true, and the detail of circumflances fo dif- 
 tinctly exprefied, that I have received great 
 entertainment from feveral of them, though 
 I did not think it worth while to difcufs their 
 merits with you : I have even looked, not 
 only without difguft, but with a degree of 
 pleafure, at fome, where the fubject was 
 rather of a coarfe and a dirty kind. There is 
 a darkifh picture a little further on, which 
 
 feems
 
 feems to be fomething of that nature. Now 
 I am nearer to it, I fee it is an ox hung up, 
 and the painter's name Rembrandt ; who, I 
 conclude, is a Dutchman, though the pic- 
 ture is not fo finifhed as the others. It cer- 
 tainly is very like the thing ; and yet, though 
 it is fo like, and the fubjecl fo offenfive, I 
 do not look at it with as much repugnance 
 as I ihould have ex peeled. 
 
 " You certainly are in the right, How- 
 ard," continued Mr. Seymour, " and have 
 accounted for this perfectly well: I can- 
 not, indeed, eafily bring myfelf to call fuch 
 a picture beautiful; but I do perceive, 
 and with pleafure, the blended variety of 
 mellow and harmonious tints you fpoke 
 of, both on the ox itfelf, on the gloomy 
 window behind, and on the woman leaning 
 over the wicket. Now, I recollect: that in 
 coming through the village, we pafled by a 
 butcher's (hop, where a real ox was hung 
 up much in the fume manner; but neither 
 
 of
 
 C 
 
 of you flopped to examine it : on the con- 
 trary, we all got a little out of the way. Ani- 
 mal difguft, therefore, prevailed in the one 
 cafe, and not in the other; and thus far, I 
 think, even you, Hamilton, muft allow, that 
 Howard's diftinclion is juft; though you do 
 not agree with him on the point altogether." 
 
 " Before I anfwer you, J> faid Mr. Hamil- 
 ton, ' I beg you will look at this head, and 
 tell me what you think of it." 
 
 " What I think of it!" faid he, "why, I 
 think it a much more exact, and extraordina- 
 ry imitation of nature, than any thing I have 
 feen; every line of the countenance, every hair 
 is exprefled ; it is natural to a degree, that I 
 had no idea the art of painting could ar- 
 rive at; and I fhall not eafily forget the name 
 of Denner, which the artift is well juftified 
 in having written on it." 
 
 te I do not immediately guefs," faid Mr. 
 Howard, " what is Hamilton's aim in mak- 
 ing you look fo particularly at this Denner, 
 
 though,
 
 C 16.5 ] 
 
 though, I dare fay, he has his motive. I 
 muft now beg, in my turn, that you will caft 
 your eye towards that head which hangs on 
 one fide of the ox, and is by the fame matter, 
 Rembrandt. It is, in one fenfe, and, I be- 
 lieve, in the trueft fenfe, more natural than 
 the Denner ; and as you may doubt my opi- 
 nion, and think it rather paradoxical, I will 
 mention a paflage from one of Sir Jofliua 
 Reynolds's Difcourfes, which ftruck me fo 
 forcibly when I firft read it, and has fince re- 
 curred to me on fo many occafions, that I 
 dare fay I can nearly repeat it. 
 
 " The detail of particulars," fays that 
 excellent writer, " which does not afiift the 
 " expreilion of the main characterise, is 
 " vvorfe than ufelefs ; it is mifchievous, as it 
 " difli pates the attention, and draws it from 
 " the principal point. It may be remarked, 
 " that the* impreflion which is left on our 
 fc< mind, even of things which are familiar 
 
 " to
 
 C 166 3 
 
 " to us, is feldom more than their general 
 " effecl ; beyond which, we do not look in 
 et recognizing fuch objecls. To exprefs 
 * this in painting, is to exprefs what is 
 " congenial and natural to the mind of 
 <e man, and what gives him, by reflection, 
 " his own mode of conceiving. The other 
 te prefuppofes nicety and refearch, which are 
 " only the bunnefs of the curious and at- 
 " tentive, and therefore does not fpeak to 
 " the general fenfe of the whole fpecies ; 
 *' in which common, and, as I may fo call 
 " it, mother tongue, every thing grand and 
 " comprehenfive mutt be uttered/' 
 
 "If you will apply this mailerly obfer- 
 vation to the two heads before us, you will 
 fee the reafon why Rembrandt holds a 
 much higher place in the fcale of painters, 
 than Denner." 
 
 " Nothing can be more flriking and 
 convincing, than the pailage you have juft 
 
 " quoted/'
 
 quoted," faid Mr. Seymour ; " and though, 
 in fpite of reafon and authority, I ftill cannot 
 help feeling a preference for this highly finim- 
 ed head, yet I am perfuaded that you and Sir 
 Jofhua are right. Indeed, the fame fort of 
 reflection has frequently occurred to me, 
 in refpecl to another kind of painting with 
 which I am much more converfant, the pic- 
 fura loquens, as poetry has been called. The 
 defcriptions, for inftance, in Thomfon's Sea- 
 fons, are admirable in their ftyle ; but, com- 
 pared with thofe which we meet with in 
 poets of a higher caft, and not profefledly 
 defcriptive, I own they, in fomerefpecls, put 
 me in mind of Denner; for Thomfon feenis 
 to have watched all the detail of circum- 
 ftances, one after another, in the moil mi- 
 nute manner, in order to defcribe them as 
 minutely; and, therefore, according to Sir 
 Jofhua's excellent remark, (a remark equally 
 applicable to both arts,) he does not fo 
 
 much
 
 C 168 ] 
 
 much exprefs what is congenialand natural 
 to the mind of man, as what prefuppofes 
 refearch and nicety. I muft not, however 
 be unjuft to Thomfon : his fubject often re- 
 quired minute defcription ; and at leaf! he 
 is' far from having the coldnefs which often 
 accompanies minutenefs; on the contrary, 
 to exprefs myielf in painters' language, he 
 has great glow of colouring, and great force 
 of light and fhadow." 
 
 " As you feem," faid Mr. Howard, '* ta- 
 citly to allow, that Denner has ibme of the ue- 
 fects which attend minutenefs, let me fliew 
 you a mod uncommon union ; that of Rem- 
 brandt's great principles of light and fhadow, 
 with the detail of Denner. If you will come 
 this way, you will fee it in that picture of 
 Gerard Dow. Do nat, however, go too 
 clofe, atfirfi, but look from this place at the 
 general effect : you who begin to feel fonie 
 relifh for the mellow harmonious tints of 
 
 Rembrandt,
 
 C 
 
 Rembrandt, may here admire the fame ex- 
 cellencies in this work of his fcholar. I will 
 now allow you to come quite clofe ; and I 
 beg you will examine the minute, but mel- 
 low ftyle of finifhing, which is difplayed in 
 the woman's face and hands, in the fleep- 
 ing child, the bafket-work of the cradle, 
 and, above all, in the old velvet chair; part 
 of which you plainly fee has been rubbed 
 thread-bare by long ufe. To raife your 
 wonder ft ill higher, I muft defire you will 
 look at it with this glafs : though, to fay the 
 truth, the trial is too fevere; for the glafs is 
 one I make ufe of for examining gems, and 
 is a very powerful magnifier." 
 
 " This is furprifing, indeed, ' faid Mr. 
 Seymour: " I faw, with my naked eye, how 
 admirably he had reprefented the worn-out 
 part of the velvet; but, with this alfiftance, 
 one diftinguifhes each of the bare threads, 
 fo as really to follow, in a manner, the pro- 
 M cefs
 
 C 170 3 
 
 cefs of the loom. You may now take your 
 glafs again, for though it is very curious to 
 examine it with fuch a magnifier, it is much 
 more pleafant to look at it without. I am 
 afraid the Denner will fuffer by comparifon 
 with this exquifite piece of art; let us, how- 
 ever, return to it. Yes/' continued he, " I 
 do perceive that there is a crudenefs of imi- 
 tation, compared with the laft but, Hamil- 
 ton, you have been quite filent all this time ; 
 I believe Howard's fufpicion was unjuft, or, 
 at leaft, that hitherto you agree with him 
 in all he has advanced/' 
 
 " I do moft entirely agree with him," re- 
 plied Mr. Hamilton; "for I am not fo apt 
 to quarrel with his diflinclions, as he is with 
 mine; and that distinction which he made 
 between thefe three different flyles of paint- 
 ing, is, in my opinion, a very juft one. But, 
 tell me, which of the three do you pre- 
 fer?" 
 
 " That.
 
 C 
 
 " That of the picture with the child and 
 cradle," anfwered he, " in which the detail, 
 though highly intereft ing, is not forced upon 
 your notice. I am not fure, however, whe- 
 ther its being on fo much fmaller a fcale than 
 the head, may not be one caufe of my pre- 
 ference. I know, at leaft, that when I have 
 been (hewn a view in a concave mirror, I 
 have been highly pleafed with what I had 
 looked at with indifference in nature; and, 
 again, when I took my eyes off it, the real 
 fcene has looked comparatively coarfe. Per- 
 haps, therefore, the cradle pidture may have 
 the fame fort of advantage over the head, as 
 a view in the mirror has over the real one, 
 and on this principle that in both of them 
 the detail, though not leflened in quantity 
 by the diminution of the fcale, appears from 
 it more foft and delicate/' 
 
 " On that principle/' faid Mr. Hamilton, 
 
 :f you then will certainly allow, that the real 
 
 M 2 carcafs
 
 C i7 2 3 
 
 carcafs of an ox reflected in fuch a mirror, 
 would lofe part of its difgufting appearance, 
 though the detail would be preferved ; and 
 flill more fo, if the mirror fhould be one of 
 the dark kind, which are often made ufe of 
 for viewing fcenery." 
 
 " I allow it," faid Mr. Seymour. 
 
 " Let us, then/' continued Mr. Hamilton. 
 " apply all this to painting. If, for inftance, 
 the ox in that Rembrandt, which (as in the 
 cafe of the dark mirror) is of a lower tone 
 than nature, and in which the detail is fkil- 
 fully fupprefled, were painted in the fame 
 full light, and with the fame minute exacl- 
 nefs as this head of Denner, you would pro- 
 bably turn with fome difguft from fuch a 
 crude, undifguifed difplay of raw flefh. But, 
 again, fuppofe inftead of being, as it now 
 is, hardly a fourth part of the fize of a real 
 ox, it were as large as nature, and Ml every 
 part thus diftinclly exprefled as if feen quite 
 
 clofe,
 
 C 173 n 
 
 clofe, I am not fure that you would not keep 
 at the fame diftance from it, as you did from 
 the fhambles in the village/' 
 
 " I eafily conceive," faid Mr. Seymour, 
 " that it makes a very great difference whe- 
 ther you are clofe to a large difgufting ob- 
 ject, or at fome diftance from it, even fup- 
 pofing any other fenfe than feeing out of 
 the queftion ; but did painters never paint 
 fhambles, and fuch objects on a large fcale?" 
 
 " They did," faid Mr. Hamilton; "but 
 then they imagined the fpectator to be at 
 fuch a diftance, as eafily to take in the whole 
 together ; and confequently not likely to dif- 
 tinguiih the minute parts, in the ufual man- 
 ner of looking at fuch objects : they would 
 therefore have been untrue to nature, had 
 they made them diftinct. Denner has fup- 
 pofed you to be quite clofe to the object, 
 and intent upon every particular: his choice, 
 therefore, is in fome meafure unnatural, 
 M 3 though
 
 C 174 3 
 
 though he has great merit in the execution. 
 If you put all thefe circumftances together, 
 I think you will perceive, that even without 
 having recourfe to the operation of the other 
 fenfes, we may account for the difference 
 between the effecl: of difgufting objects in 
 reality, and in pictures; in which laft, not 
 only the fize of objects, and their detail, is 
 in general very much lefiened, but alfo the 
 fcale both of light and colour, is equally 
 lowered. 
 
 " I mu ft here put you in mind of a cir- 
 cumftance, that I dare fay you will remem- 
 ber, though you could little expect: to hear 
 it introduced on this occaiion. Do not you 
 recollect calling upon me ibme time ago, 
 when I was looking over fome prints ? They 
 were by this very mailer, Rembrandt ; one of 
 them was of a very ugly woman, in a filthy 
 and indecent attitude, from which I remem- 
 ber you turned with extreme difguft : yet, 
 
 that
 
 C 175 1 
 
 that was merely a little black and white print ! 
 what then would have been your difguft, if, 
 upon entering my room, you had feen a pic- 
 ture of the fame beaftly creature as large as 
 life, and the whole detail as diftincHy co- 
 loured and exprefled, as in this head of Den- 
 ner ! I believe it would have been only lefs, 
 than if you had feen the real object ^Efchy- 
 lus, you know, makes one of his characters 
 fay, Jf^opxa KTWSTOV. I think fuch a reprefen- 
 tation, would juftify the application of the 
 fame daring figure to another fenfe : I am fure, 
 at leaft, the impreflion would have been fo 
 powerful, that you would fcarcely have felt 
 any "mild pleafure of vifion from the blend- 
 " ed variety of mellow and harmonious 
 " tints," fcarcely have been able to " view 
 " them with abftracl and impartial atten- 
 tion/' though they would have been "fe- 
 *' parated in the painter's imitation." 
 
 " And now, I think, you muft have had 
 
 nearly enough of this difcuflion ; and very 
 
 M 4, probably
 
 C 176 3 
 
 probably may imagine, from all you have 
 feen and heard of the Dutch matters, that 
 they never painted any but low, and thofe 
 often filthy fubjecls. It is true, that they fel- 
 dom attempted the higher ftyie of the art ; 
 yet flill, they did not always confine them- 
 felves to the lowed: and I fhould like to 
 fhew you a picture of Wov^rmans, which 
 ufed to hang at yonder corner next to the 
 laloon. I do not mean that the fubjecl of 
 this, or any of his other pictures, is at all 
 elevated, except as compared with the reft 
 of his fchool: they generally painted boors 
 and peafants ; but Wovermans often repre- 
 fented the moft dignified characters he was 
 acquainted with ; that is, the nobility of the 
 country, handfomely drefTed, and mounted 
 on beautiful horfes, and occupied in the gay 
 diverfions of hunting, hawking, &c." 
 
 When they came up to the piclure, Mr. 
 Seymour looked very fignificantly at Mr. Ha- 
 milton; " I begin to fufpecl:," faid he, " that 
 
 you
 
 C 177 1 
 
 you had your rcafons for bringing me al- 
 moft the whole length of the gallery, to look 
 at this picture. I now recoiled, when we 
 firlt began this difcuilion, foon after leaving 
 the hovel, that I afked Howard, whether 
 handfome, well-dreiTed men and women, 
 and handfome horfes, with gay caparifons, 
 could not admit of effects of light and fha- 
 dow, and harmonious colouring, as well as 
 gypfies, afles, and panniers: and I rejoice 
 to have my queftions fo fatisfaclorily an- 
 fwcred. Thefe are, indeed, very beautiful 
 horfes, and full of fprightly and graceful ac- 
 tion ; their riders, of both fexes, arc pleaf- 
 ing figures ; the whole fcenery, too, the por- 
 tico, the gardens, the fountains, and the 
 handfome country houfes in different parts, 
 have all a very rich and chearful appearance. 
 I am quite glad to find, that what, accord- 
 ing to my ideas, is beautiful, and highly 
 ornamented, may be exprelFed in painting, 
 as well as what is fo like dirt and uglinefs, 
 
 that
 
 C 178 3 
 
 that it requires fome practice to diftinguifh 
 in what the difference confifts: had I the li- 
 berty of picking out a few pictures from this 
 colle61ion for my own amuiement, this cer- 
 tainly would be one of them." 
 
 " And with much reafon," faid Mr. Ha- 
 milton ; " for where great excellence in the 
 art is employed on pleafmg objects, the fu- 
 perior intereft will be felt by every obferver ; 
 but efpecially by thofe who are lefs conver- 
 fant in the mechanical part. On that account, 
 I am perfuaded, that the two pictures of 
 Panini in the next room, which Howard 
 and I have both mentioned to you, will give 
 as much pleafure to you, as they do to us ; 
 particularly that of the infide of St. Pe- 
 ter's." 
 
 <* As it is getting rather late," faid Mr. 
 Seymour, " and as we have nearly finifhed 
 the gallery, I think we had better try the 
 experiment." 
 
 " If you will give me leave," faid Mr. 
 
 Howard.
 
 C ^79 J 
 
 Howard, " I fhall commit you to Hamilton's 
 care ; I know the two pi<5tures by heart, 
 having often feen them in the houfe of their 
 late pofiefibr, and I \viih to examine a 
 few pictures in the lower part of the gallery, 
 that are new to me : I believe, however, I 
 am doing an imprudent thing ; for, I have 
 no doubt, that Hamilton will take this oppor- 
 tunity of inftilling fome of his doctrines/' 
 
 " 1 fhall not neglect it, moft certainly," 
 laid he ; " and I rather think the opportu- 
 nity will be favourable." 
 
 Mr. Howard then returned to the further 
 part of the gallery, while the two other 
 friends entered the faloon together ; on the 
 oppofite iide of which, and quite alone, hung 
 the picture of the infide of St. Peter's. 
 
 As they advanced towards it, Mr. Hamil- 
 ton obferved, with great pleafure, the admi- 
 ration of his friend ; who Hopped before it 
 a long while, without laying a word. When 
 
 at
 
 c 
 
 at laft he began to fpeak: " I have often 
 heard," faid he, " of the beauty and mag- 
 nificence of this building, the grandeft, I be- 
 lieve, of any modern temple, or perhaps of 
 any that ever exifted: I have often long- 
 ed to fee the original, and juft before the 
 French got poffeffion of Italy, I had deter- 
 mined to go to Rome. This picture makes 
 me feel ft ill greater regret at the difappoint- 
 ment; and at the fame time, in fome de- 
 gree, confoles me for it : but I cannot help 
 reflecting with pain, that a building, which 
 requires fuch conftant attention and expence 
 to keep it in repair, may now perhaps, by 
 degrees, become a mere ruin : all that de- 
 lightful fymmetry, that eorrefpondence of 
 all the parts, that profufion of gilding amj 
 of precious marbles, may, in a few years, be 
 broken and defaced, and covered with dirty 
 ftains and incruftations ; in fhort, all its high 
 finifhed ornaments totally deftroyed: and 
 
 then,
 
 c 
 
 then, perhaps, this piclure, a frail memo- 
 rial of fuch a work, may be the only one 
 exifting of its former fplendotir and magni- 
 ficence," 
 
 " I wilh your fears may not be too well 
 founded," faid Mr. Hamilton; "and I own 
 I feel j uft as you do: now, if Howard were 
 here, he could comfort you, though I can- 
 not; for, according to his fyftem, it will be- 
 come (till more beautiful, when it is in the 
 Hate that you have juft been describing with 
 fo much horror." 
 
 " You caiiiut mean this ferioufly," fait! 
 the other; "you cannot mean, that Howard 
 would aflert, that when all the circum fiances 
 which now give beauty to this building are 
 deftroyed, it will then become more beauti- 
 
 C II** 
 
 full 
 
 " No," replied Mr. Hamilton, "not in 
 thofe terms ; he is not a man to give fuch a 
 hold to his adverfary ; but it is a conclufion 
 
 fairly
 
 r 182 : 
 
 fairly to be drawn from \vhat he has aflerted : 
 he rnu ft acknowledge, (for nothing is more 
 generally acknowledged,) that a building 
 when in ruins, is more piclurefque than 
 it was in its entire ftate; therefore, ac- 
 cording to him, it muft be more beautiful, 
 for he fays, there is no diftinclion between 
 the two terms: in other words, that they 
 are, in refpecl: to vifible objects, fynony- 
 mous." 
 
 (_ 
 
 " You have, indeed, made good ufe of 
 this infide of St. Peter's," faid Mr. Sey- 
 mour; "and I muft own, it has befriended 
 you extremely in this difcuffion. Nothing 
 has fo much tended to convince me of the 
 want of a diftindlion; for though I have ne- 
 ver paid much attention to the ftricl: ufe of 
 the word, I have perpetually heard it ob- 
 ferved, that ruins are more pi6turefque than 
 entire buildings : now, when I look at that 
 building, there feems to be fomething fo 
 
 very
 
 C 183 i 
 
 very contradictory in the idea of its becom- 
 ing more beautiful by deftruclion, that I 
 mufl either deny that it will become more 
 piclurefque, or give a very different fenfe to 
 thofe words. But is it poflible that in fuch 
 a cafe Howard can really think there is no 
 diftinclion?" 
 
 " I am fo thoroughly convinced, that 
 there is one myfelf," faid Mr. Hamilton, 
 " and the whole appears to me fo clear, that 
 I can fcarcely believe him to be quite in 
 earned. No one has a more quick, and ac- 
 curate perception of diftinclions than our 
 friend; and I once hoped he would have 
 employed his talents in throwing new lights 
 on this diftinclion : but, unfortunately, he 
 has exercifed all his ingenuity in trying to 
 prove, that youth and age, frefhnefs and 
 decay, what is rough, broken, and rudely 
 irregular, and what has that fymmetry, con- 
 tinuity of parts, and laft finifhing polifh, 
 
 which
 
 C 184 H 
 
 which the artift (whether divine or human) 
 manifeftly intended, are all to be conlidered 
 as belonging to one general clafs. There- 
 fore, for in (lance, not only this building, in 
 its prefent ftate, or in ruins, but this build- 
 ing, and the infide of a broken hovel, would 
 be indifferently either beautiful or piclu- 
 refque; and either of thefe terms, would 
 not only fuit a Paris or a Belifarius, but a 
 Paris and a common old beggar." 
 
 " I can allow a great deal/' faid Mr. 
 Seymour, " for the manner in which painters 
 view objects, and confider them with re- 
 fpecl: to their art, and confequently apply 
 terms to them, which others would hardly 
 ufe; except thofe, perhaps, who, without 
 being artifts, may have acquired their ideas 
 and language : but tell me, Hamilton, is it 
 pofiible that when that roof, with all its bril- 
 liant ornaments, fhall be rent and broken ; 
 when the gilding, the marbles, the rich frizes, 
 
 and
 
 L 185 3 
 
 and cornices, become ftained with moifture, 
 and are mouldering away, the painter will 
 admire them more than when in perfect 
 prefervation, or think them more fuited to 
 his art ? But why do I afk : is not this a 
 picture ? and does it not delight you and 
 Howard, as much as it does me, and fuch 
 untutored eyes as mine ? But I fee How- 
 ard is juft come in; and I fhall not be forry 
 to hear you difcufs this point together/' 
 
 " Well, Seymour/' faid Mr. Howard, 
 when he came up to them, " are not thefe 
 three admirable pictures ? I hardly know 
 fo beautiful a head as that of the St. John, 
 in the Parmeggiano ;* and the Virgin and 
 child in the upper part, have a fine mixture 
 of grace and dignity : as to the two Pani- 
 
 * The Parmeggiano, and the two Paninis, are in the col- 
 
 ledlion of the Marquis of Abercorn, and each of them fingly 
 
 occupies a fide of the faloon at the Priory. The Parmeggiano 
 
 is, I believe, the moft capital pilure of that rare and eminent 
 
 i . The Paninis are not lei's excellent in their ftyle. 
 
 nis,
 
 C 186 3 
 
 nis, I can fcarcely tell which I prefer ; 
 for that amazing aflemblage of columns in 
 the oppofite piclure, the felva di colonne, as 
 the Italians call them, is no lefs beautiful 
 in its ftyle, than this richly ornamented in- 
 fide of St. Peter's." 
 
 " To fay the truth/' faicl Mr. Seymour, 
 " we have as yet only looked at this one 
 piclure/' 
 
 " How, Seymour/' faid the other ! " all 
 this time at one piclure ! The love of paint- 
 ing has made a furprifmg progrefs with 
 you ! but I fancy I prophefied very juftly 
 when you left me." 
 
 " You did, indeed/' faid Mr. Seymour ; 
 " Hamilton has made good ufe of his time, 
 and of this piclure ; and, I can tell you, it 
 is as dangerous to quit a difciple, as a mif- 
 trefs : your rival has been very preffmg ; 
 and I wifh I may not have given him too 
 much encouragement. I am glad, how- 
 ever,
 
 C 187 ] 
 
 ever, you are come, as I had juft begun to 
 queftion him on a point, which I wifli to 
 hear difcufled with you : it is, whether 
 painters, or connoifleurs like yourfelves, 
 would continue to admire fuch a building 
 as this, if all that I admire were broken and 
 defaced, as much, or even more, than in its 
 prefent entire and finifhed ftate/' 
 
 " I perceive you look to me for an anfwer," 
 faid Mr. Hamilton, "probably as having origi- 
 nally put the queftion to me ; and I know you 
 rather love to promote a little altercation be- 
 tween me and Howard ; but upon this par- 
 ticular point, I think we mail not differ very 
 materially. It certainly has been imagined, 
 that becaufe ruins are more piclurefque than 
 entire buildings, they are confequently pre- 
 ferred to them by painters : I think, how- 
 ever, the idea is unfounded ; for I believe 
 there are at lead as many perfect buildings 
 as there are ruins, in the works of the moft 
 
 N 2 eminent
 
 C 188 3 
 
 eminent artifts. If, then, painters them- 
 felves balance between the two, it is very 
 natural that you, when you look at that 
 picture, fhould think with horror of any 
 poffible change ; and not conceive how the 
 mofl prejudiced perfon, could make the 
 fmalleft comparifon between the building 
 you now fee, and any future ft ate of it : but 
 the fact is, that however ftriking the effect 
 of ruins, when they are fully mellowed by 
 time, the firft beginning of decay is no 
 lefs odious to the painter, than to the reft of 
 mankind. When that gilded roof, thofe 
 fmifhed ornaments, thofe precious marbles, 
 fhall firft begin to be foiled and broken, 
 while the greateft part of them will ftill re- 
 main perfect, each crack, each ftain, will 
 obvioufly deftroy fo much beauty ; that is, 
 fo much of its original character : and this 
 incongruity continues, till the whole, by 
 degrees, afliimes a new, and totally diftinct 
 
 character.
 
 C 189 1 
 
 character. Such a building, is not a phoe- 
 nix that arifes with renewed, yet fimilar, 
 beauty and brilliancy, from deft ruction : on 
 the contrary, it is changed by a flow pro- 
 cefs, into fomething totally different from 
 its former felf; and that butterfly there, 
 with his painted wings, is not more unlike 
 the chryfalis from which it proceeded, than 
 the St. Peter's you here fee in its glory, is 
 unlike the St. Peter's, which fome future 
 age, (I hope a far diftant one) will admire 
 as a ruin/' 
 
 " I like the firft part of your explanation 
 fo well," faid Mr. Howard, " that I will not 
 quarrel with you about the end of it; and, 
 indeed, I want you both to return to the gal- 
 lery as foon as you have looked at the two 
 other pictures; for, if I am. not mittaken, 
 I (hall fhew you a fruit-piece that you 
 will prefer to any of Baptift, or Van Huyf- 
 fun." 
 
 N 3 When
 
 C 190 3 
 
 When they had returned to the gallery 
 (though not till they had paid proper atten- 
 tion to the other Panini, and the Parmeg- 
 giano), they found that the fervant had 
 brought in a quantity of beautiful fruit ; 
 and among the reft, fome remarkably fine 
 bunches of grapes : thefe with their leaves, 
 and the branches on which they hung, were 
 fufpended over a fmall wooden frame in fuch 
 a manner, that the frame was concealed, 
 while the fruit and foliage were difplayed to 
 the greateft advantage. They were all de- 
 lighted with the fruit itfelf, and with its ar- 
 rangement ; and they agreed that nothing 
 could be more truly beautiful than the whole 
 effea. 
 
 " I defire," faid Mr. Howard, " that you 
 will look at the bread as well as the fruit, 
 for according to Hamilton's doctrines, there 
 never was fo truly piclurefque a loaf; at 
 leaft I never faw one fo full of cracks, rough-^ 
 
 nefles,
 
 C 19' 3 
 
 Defies, and inequalities : all of which I ac- 
 knowledge are very inviting to the tafte, 
 whatever effect they may produce on the 
 pleafures of vifion diftinclly confidered." 
 
 " I am much obliged to you," faid Mr. 
 Hamilton, " for putting me in mind of a 
 paflage I was reading a little time ago, and 
 which, I believe, in all our difputes I never 
 mentioned to you : you will be furprized to 
 hear what a powerful ally I have met with, 
 in fupport of my diftinclion; no lefs a one 
 than Marcus Verus Aurelius Antoninus, Em- 
 peror and Philoibphcr! The paflage is in 
 his third book ; he there defcribes fuch a 
 loaf as this, with a comment not very un- 
 like your's, and afterwards mentions feveral 
 other objects, which, together with the cir- 
 cumftances attending them, we fhould call 
 piclurefque ; fuch as the burning of figs 
 when over-ripe ; the appearance of olives 
 whenjufl approaching to decay ; the heads 
 N 4 of 
 
 n
 
 C 
 
 of corn bent downwards ; the over-hanging 
 brows of a lion ; the foam of a wild boar ; 
 all of which, he obferves (together with 
 many other things of the fame kind), though 
 far from beautiful to the eye, yet, if confi- 
 dered diftinclly, and as they follow the courfe 
 of nature, have an ornamental and alluring 
 effedh" 
 
 " You will gain but little from this paf- 
 fage," anfwered Mr. Howard ; " I remem- 
 ber it very well, and am not afraid of your 
 pretended ally. Antoninus, you know, was 
 a ftoic, and the whole turns on the ftoical 
 doctrines about nature : they held, that the 
 productions of nature, and their acceffaries, 
 were all xaXa ; that is, beautiful in the ge- 
 neral fenfe, on account of their fitnefs, 
 though they might not be ewthat, that is, 
 beautiful to the eye ; and you muft recollect, 
 that they thought much lefs highly of the 
 pleafures of vifion than we do, and held them 
 
 indeed
 
 [ '93 3 
 
 indeed below the concern of a philofophic 
 mind. If you were to read the whole trea- 
 tife, you would find, that every thing refers 
 to thofe doctrines; but, I dare fay, you dif- 
 cover very clearly in this paflage, the firft 
 dawn of the diftinclion you are fo fond of; 
 and confider Antoninus to have been as 
 truly the herald of the piclurefque, as Ba- 
 con was of the true philofophy." 
 
 " I may, perhaps, have indulged feme 
 fancies of that kind," replied Mr. Hamilton; 
 " indeed, the paflage was pointed out to 
 me by our excellent friend Winterton, for, 
 as you very well know, I am no great gre- 
 cian, and the book itfelf is out of my courfe 
 of reading. He thought the paflage curi- 
 ous, and that it contained an allufion, though 
 a faint one, to the diftinclion which you 
 deny. I remember, too, that he was much 
 diverted at the good emperor's panegyric 
 on ki fling cruil ; and he put me in mind of a 
 
 fcene
 
 C *94 3 
 
 fcene we had witnefled together, when a 
 French gentleman, before a pretty large 
 company at breakfaft, very openly expreiled 
 his difappointment, at not finding any cruft 
 of that kind : we had obferved him turning 
 the loaf round feveral times ; at laft he ex- 
 claimed, " Ma foi je le tourne, le retourne, 
 et n'y vois rien d'appetiffant!" But, to re- 
 turn from this Frenchman to the Emperor: 
 I believe, as you fay, that he meant to ac- 
 count for the pleafure he received, folely 
 from his ftoic doctrines ; and yet, as, accord- 
 ing to thofe doctrines, all the productions 
 of nature univerfally, (even thofe that are 
 baneful, as poifons,) were to be admired, why 
 fhould he felect and fpecify thefe particular 
 objects, as having fomething peculiarly or- 
 namental and attractive? I think I can ac- 
 count for this felect ion, and, as you may 
 fuppofe, in a manner that accords with my 
 diftinction. The emperor, you know, was 
 
 a dilettante
 
 C 135 ] 
 
 a dilettante in painting, as well as in philofo- 
 phy, having actually ftudied the practical 
 part of the art under Diognotus: this would 
 naturally make him attend to thofe objects 
 which have an effect in painting, fuch as the 
 brow of the lion, the foam of the boar: and 
 that the ancients were (truck with the effect 
 of foam in a picture, we may infer from the 
 ftory of Apelles; which, by the way, is a 
 very good inftance of accident having per- 
 formed, what defign could not. You re- 
 member, that after trying in vain to paint 
 the foam of a hoife in the regular way, he 
 threw his fponge at the picture in defpair; 
 and by that lucky accident produced an ef- 
 fect of foam, which was the admiration of 
 all who faw it. I am very fond of this anec- 
 dote, for it agrees with my doctrine, that ac- 
 cident is a principal agent in producing pic- 
 turefque circum fiances/' 
 
 " I will own," faid Mr. Seymour, " that 
 I fhould have fome fcruple in making acci- 
 dent
 
 dent fo very active an agent ; for, according 
 to its etymology, which, I think, fhould al- 
 ways be attended to, accident fignifies what 
 falls, or befals, from the effect of fome un- 
 known caufe; the ufe therefore which you 
 feem inclined to make of it, appears to me (con 
 rifpetto parlando,) rather unphilofophical : 
 you may fay, perhaps, that one need not be 
 fo very ftri6t in converfation ; but the hif- 
 tory of our fenfations, and whatever relates 
 to it, is a fubject fo truly philofophical, that 
 even in common difcourfe I had rather 
 confider it as fuch, and not get into a habit 
 of turning effects into caufes." 
 
 " And yet," replied Mr. Hamilton, "from 
 our very limited knowledge, how often are 
 we obliged to confider effects as caufes ! 
 I really think, as we make Fortune a God- 
 defs, and place her in heaven, accident may 
 be allowed to become an agent upon earth. 
 Perhaps, too, if we were to examine into the 
 rights of the univerfally acknowledged agent, 
 
 Nature,
 
 C 197 ^ 
 
 Nature, me might poffibly be degraded 
 from a caufe into an effecl: : in Ihort, I 
 have been fo much accuftomed, however 
 unphilofophically, to give accident an ac- 
 tive employment, that I fhould be quite 
 at a lofs without its afliftance. All I 
 can do for you is, to imitate what I 
 have feen done in Italy by the writers of 
 operas, though from motives which cer- 
 tainly have nothing to do with philofophy : 
 they begin with profefling, that although 
 the words " fato fortuna," &c. are made 
 ufe of, nothing is to be underfiood contrary 
 to the true Catholic faith. I am ready to 
 make the fame fort of profeflion ; and now, 
 with your leave, will go on ; only premifing, 
 that as by Nature, I mean the conftant 
 and regular effecl of an unknown caufe; 
 fo by Accident, I mean the inconftant, and 
 irregular effecl, of a caufe equally unknown. 
 " If then the emperor were prefent, I 
 
 think
 
 C 198 i 
 
 think I could account to him for the plea- 
 fure he received from the objects he men- 
 tions, much better than he has done by his 
 floic dcclrines ; and yet, in fome meafure, 
 according to his own expre (lions . You tranf- 
 late TO, iTriyivofAevot, roig (purst ywopsvoiq, the 
 productions of nature, and their accefTaries ; 
 I dare fay, very juftly: now I conceive that 
 the Qvrei yutoptva, may refer to what might 
 be called the ufual and regular courfe, either 
 of nature or of art (for the emperor clearly 
 gives one example from the latter,) and the 
 liuywopsva to the effects of accident.* Thus, 
 for inftance, the baker (as Antoninus ob- 
 ferves) defigns to make the bread of a re- 
 gular form, according to the principles of 
 his art ; accident gives it a broken and ir- 
 regular appearance, by which it becomes 
 piclurefque, and likewife appetijjant ; or, as 
 
 * It fo happens, (and aptly enough for the found at lealt,) 
 that Stephens interprets imymrcu fupervenit, mag'u taraen pro- 
 prie accidit. 
 
 the
 
 C 199 3 
 
 the iloical epicure gravely exprefles himfelf, 
 
 'srpoQvfAia.v Ttrpo$ rip rpofpyv ^iu$ tiuxxtvet. The 
 fig becomes ripe in the regular courfe of 
 nature ; it burlis in various ways from the 
 operation of accident. Olives ripen in the 
 fame regular manner; but accident often 
 makes them drop before they are ripe, and 
 then gives them that peculiar appearance in 
 decay, which the emperor was flruck with. 
 The fame may be faid of corn : its regular 
 growth is upright ; accident bends it in a 
 thoufand directions. The brow of the lion 
 is always a marked feature of nature ; but 
 the effect of paflions, which are the acci- 
 dents of the mind, makes it infinitely more 
 firiking ; and Antoninus might very pof- 
 iibly think of that famous line of Homer, 
 which defcribes the lion drawing down his 
 brow in anger 
 
 flay C r switrxuvtov KCX.TU eAxsra* oV<re KX^UTT-'JCV. 
 The foam of the wild boar is alfoli mark 
 
 of
 
 C 20 U 
 
 of paftion, and confequently has a frronger 
 effect on the imagination. All that he fays, 
 too, of the pleafure we receive from looking 
 at thofe objects in reality, which we have 
 been ufed to admire in painting, and of that 
 which we receive from viewing the ftrongly 
 marked lines of age, as well as the loveli- 
 nefs of youth, fhew, that he examined ob- 
 jecls with a painter's eye, however ftoically 
 he might account for the pleafure they gave 
 him. 
 
 " But let us fuppofe, that his matter Di- 
 ognotus (or any painter of an enquiring 
 mind, but not addicted, like Antoninus, to a 
 particular feel) had been to account for the 
 pleafure he received from fuch objects as 
 the emperor has defcribed ; I think he very 
 naturally would have firfl refle61ed on the 
 pleafure they gave him, when he was imitat- 
 ing them in his own art ; and thence have 
 been led to enquire, what were the circum- 
 
 ftances,
 
 C 201 3 
 
 fiances, which made them fo particularly 
 fuited to that art. He would have found 
 that they were fuited to it, by reafon of their 
 ftrongly marked, and peculiar character; by 
 their fudden, and irregular variation of form, 
 and correfpondent lights and fhadows ; and 
 often (as in the decaying olives,) by their 
 peculiar tints: that thefe, in many cafes, 
 arofe from accident ; in others, from natural 
 conformation ; and that in mod cafes, acci- 
 dent feemed to increafe peculiarity of cha- 
 racter. He might then reflect, (as Antoni- 
 nus does,) that all fuch objects were far from 
 being beautiful; and he might alfo make a 
 further reflection, which Antoninus does not 
 make, but which the art of painting might 
 well have fuggefted that they were equally 
 far from infipid uglinefs; that is, from the 
 character of numberlefs objects, alike un- 
 interefting to the painter, and to the reft of 
 mankind : that, therefore, they formed a dif- 
 o tindt
 
 C 203 3 
 
 tincl clafs, highly fuited to his art, but of a 
 fuitablenefs, clearly to be accounted for from 
 their intrinfic qualities. 
 
 " Thus the painter might have reafoned: 
 while the philofopher, even fuppofmg the 
 whole of thefe reflections had come into his 
 mind, as part of them feems to have done, 
 would have thought himfelf guilty of herefy, 
 if he had thus accounted for his fenfations ; 
 and confequently Antoninus, though he felt 
 like a painter, reafoned like a ftoic. If he 
 were prefent, I fhould purfue the fubject 
 much further; but as he is not, I will fparc 
 you." 
 
 " Many, many thanks to you for your 
 forbearance/' faid Mr. Seymour ; " for though 
 I like your different comments upon Anto- 
 ninus's text, and at another time fhould not 
 have been forry to prolong the difcuffion, 
 I really think we may as well tafte the fruit 
 that has given rife to it: and, I muft fay, 
 
 that
 
 C 2 3 3 
 
 that it would be difficult to find two other 
 men in all England, who, after fuch a walk, 
 with fuch fruit before them, would have en- 
 tered into a long difcuffion on their vifible 
 qualities and effects/' 
 
 Mr. Seymour's advice was immediately 
 followed ; and, after making a mofl delicious 
 repaft (for every thing was as delightful to 
 the tafte as to the eye,) the three friends 
 walked towards the garden. 
 
 They flood forne time looking at the view 
 from the houfe ; the diftant objects in which, 
 were nearly the fame as thofe from the hill, 
 but lefs happily accompanied : when Mr. 
 Hamilton, addreflinghimfelf to Mr. Howard, 
 " you cannot imagine," faid he, ** what a 
 lofs there is in that group of trees, of which 
 my old friend the clergyman was fpeaking. 
 I can (hew you very nearly where it ftood : 
 you fee where there is a finking in thofe hills 
 to the left ; from about this point where we 
 o 2 ftand,
 
 C 204 ] 
 
 ftand, the trees juft interfered that part; and 
 as they rofe a great deal above the horizon, 
 and fpread very much at top, you may ima- 
 gine how well they muft have divided this 
 long continued view. You will immediately 
 perceive, too, that the noble reach of the ri- 
 ver in the fecond diftance, with the bridge, 
 the town, and the hills beyond, came in to 
 the right of the group ; and being feparated 
 by it from the general view, formed quite a 
 picture. The compofition was moft perfect 
 from that window of the drawing-room ; but 
 from many of the other windows, the glit- 
 ter of the water and of the buildings on a 
 fine evening like this, was feen between the 
 ftems, and through the branches, in a man- 
 ner that would have enchanted you with its 
 brilliancy and variety. You too, I know, 
 would have admired the terras and the ba- 
 luftrade, with all their enrichments ; for this 
 piece of grafs, was a garden in the old Italian 
 
 ftyfe;
 
 C 205 ] 
 
 ftyle ; and there is no faying what a value 
 thefe rich and ftrongly marked objects in the 
 foreground, gave to the foft colouring of the 
 diftance : you would have been no lefs pleafed 
 with the numberlefs gradations of tints, be- 
 ginning at the mafly balufters with their ac- 
 companiments, and the forcible effecT: of their 
 light and fhadow when the fun darted ob- 
 liquely through them ; then going on to the 
 high group of trees, near which, I remem- 
 ber, there were fome old cyprefies, and ever- 
 green oaks ; and thence to the more general 
 glow on that fine expanfe of country, quite 
 to the pearly hue of the moft diftant bounda- 
 ry. I am well perfuaded, that all thefe ftrik- 
 ing circum (lances have been deftroyed in- a 
 great meafure, for the purpofe of making 
 this ftiffly levelled flope ; and as the level of 
 the trees, would not agree with that of the 
 new-made ground, they of courfe were facri- 
 ficed/' 
 
 03 "I per-
 
 C 206 ] 
 
 " I perfectly conceive the effect of all the 
 objects you have defcribed/' faid Mr. How- 
 ard, " and regret the lofs of them as much 
 as you can. I fuppofe, too, that the canal 
 I fee in the lawn, is another improvement ; and 
 that it was once the river your old friend at 
 the parfonage fpoke of." 
 
 " Exactly fo," faid Mr. Hamilton ; " it is 
 a tributary ftream, and no inconfiderable a 
 one, to the large river beyond. We had 
 better go down to it now, for, I believe, it 
 is our neareft way." 
 
 They then pafled through a clofe fh rub- 
 bery and a plantation, when the whole of the 
 ferpentine river, with its regular curves, ap- 
 peared in all its nakednefs and formality. 
 
 " If I may judge/' faid Mr. Seymour, 
 " from all you have faid, and from your 
 looks now, you have both of you the greateft 
 contempt for this water; and, I muft ac- 
 knowledge, (for you have made me perceive 
 
 it
 
 r 207 ] 
 
 it more than I ufed to do) that there is fome- 
 thing of tamenefs and monotony about it : 
 but furely there is in the whole fcene, a great 
 look of neatnefs and of high polifh, and that 
 is no fmall point." 
 
 " I allow it," faid Mr. Howard; "but not 
 fo great a one, as to juftify the exclufion of 
 more eiTential qualities. By way of illuftra- 
 tion, let me propofe to you our friend Lacy: 
 nothing can be more highly polifh ed than his 
 converfation, as far as high polifh confifts in 
 the ab fence of all roughnefs ; you grew very 
 fjck of it, however, towards the end of the 
 week we palled with him laft fpring: how 
 then fliould you like to pafs your life with a 
 man, whofe ideas have one uniform flow, 
 without the leafl energy or variety ? He is 
 to the mind, what this place is to the eye." 
 
 " You might equally have made the 
 
 comparifon," faid Mr. Seymour, " between 
 
 his own place and his mind; for it is laid 
 
 o 4, out
 
 C 208 i 
 
 out exactly in the fame ftyle with this : he 
 had noble difputes with you both, and par- 
 ticularly with Hamilton, about his improve- 
 ments; but as at that time I felt no great in- 
 tereft in the fubject, I did not much attend to 
 them. I remember, however, that one of his 
 great arguments was, that "his object was 
 beauty alone, and that the improvers of Mr. 
 Brown's fchool, had nothing to do with the 
 picturefque." Had I then been as much ini- 
 tiated in your doctrines as I am at prefent, 
 I fhould have paid more attention to what 
 was going forward: indeed, I probably 
 fhould not have recollected even that one 
 fentence, if Lacy had not fo frequently re- 
 peated it." 
 
 " That one fentence/' faid Mr. Hamilton, 
 " conftitutes the whole of their attack, and 
 their defence; and I am glad you have men- 
 tioned it, as it has been thought to contain 
 fome argument: but the fophiftry of it is fo 
 
 eafily
 
 I 20 9 ] 
 
 eafily pointed out, that you will hardly con- 
 ceive how it can have impofed on any one. 
 You will obferve, that in the firft member 
 of this little lenience, beauty is employed to 
 fignify whatever pleafcs, without regard to 
 the manner; for they do not profefs to adopt 
 any particular definition, or limitation of the 
 word ; and confequently it may include what- 
 ever is grand, or piclurefque : but then, in 
 the fecond member, piclurefque is ufed as 
 fomething contrafied to beauty, which thus, 
 by implication, is confined to one peculiar 
 fet of pleafing objecls. Now, if the mean- 
 ing were exprefled in words that did not ad- 
 mit of ambiguity, the ibphiftry would ap- 
 pear at once ; for thus it would Hand " the 
 effecls which we of Mr. Brown's fchool mean 
 to produce, are only fuch as proceed from 
 verdure, i'moothnefs, and flowing lines, which 
 in our idea conftitute beauty of fcenery ; we 
 have nothing to do with irritation of any kind, 
 \ or
 
 C 
 
 or degree ; or with any of thofe fources of 
 plealure, which arife from fudden variety 
 and intricacy, from the contraft of wild and 
 broken fcenery, of rocks, cataracls, or ab- 
 ruptnefs of any kind ; or from what is called 
 ^piclurefque competition." 
 " It muft be owned," faid Mr. Seymour, 
 *' that you have tranflated them out of their 
 fophiftry into plain Englifh : I queftion, 
 however, whether you will get them to abide 
 by your tranflation ; for it would confine 
 them within ftricler limits than they proba- 
 bly would approve of." 
 
 " I believe they are aware of it," faid Mr. 
 Hamilton ; " and certainly fuch a clear ex- 
 plicit declaration, might put a profefled im- 
 prover of that fchool, into a perplexing fitua- 
 tion. Suppofing, for inftance, that he were 
 confulted on the improvements of a place, 
 full of piclurefque fcenery; but where no 
 art had been employed, thongh fome judi- 
 cious
 
 cious alterations and communications were 
 wanting : he of courfe would not like to re- 
 fufe fuch an engagement ; and yet, if he 
 were a confcientious man, lie ought to tell 
 his employer, " all this is out of my line, if 
 you intend to preferve the prefent wild ftyle 
 of fcenery, for I -have nothing to do v ith 
 the piclurefque. If you would like to have 
 the whole fmoothed and poliihed, and thofe 
 irregular trees and thickets made into clumps, 
 I can do it for you according to the moft 
 approved method ; but as to that rude water- 
 fall, thofe rocks, the manner of approach- 
 ing them, and the fort of wild path which 
 you wifh to make amicllt their intricacies, I 
 really can give you no advice whatever: 
 they are grand, as well as piclurefque, and we 
 confine ourfelves entirely to the beautiful/' 
 
 " Of which," faid Mr. Howard, "the fcene 
 before us, is a complete fpecimen/' 
 
 " Seymour/' faid Mr. Hamilton, " you 
 will have hard work, if you attempt to de- 
 fend
 
 C 212 3 
 
 fend this piece of water ; Howard and I are 
 firmly united againft you, and I am inclined 
 to fpeak more ftrongly than he has done; 
 for I remember it in its original, but by no 
 means unpdifhed ftate. It was a charming 
 n .tural meadow, perfe611y free from every 
 thing that looked flovenly; but in which 
 feveral groups of trees, mixed with a few 
 thorns and hollies, had been very judicioufly, 
 at leaft very luckily, fuffered to remain. I 
 ufed to delight in walking along the old path- 
 way: for the moft part, it kept very near 
 the water, and every now-and-then pafled 
 through one of the thickets, where for a mo- 
 ment you loft fight of the river ; the banks 
 of which, though neither high nor rocky, 
 poflefled a great deal of pleafing variety. I 
 recollect particularly one projecting part, that 
 was higher than the reft, and moft beauti- 
 fully fringed ; and where there were fome 
 large ftones, on the fide, and at the bottom 
 of the bank: I remember it the more, be- 
 
 caufe
 
 C 213 i 
 
 caufe, from my favourite window in the draw- 
 ing-room, it appeared with its beautiful re- 
 flections, juft under the branches of that 
 group of trees, which the old reclorand I 
 fo much regret. Now, the trees, and the 
 bank, and the path- way, and the thickets, are 
 all gone ; and you fee how they are replaced, 
 by thofe clumps, and that naked building, 
 and (haven bank." 
 
 " I do perceive," faid Mr. Seymour, " that 
 upon this point, you and Howard are per- 
 feclly of the fame mind, and I fhall not 
 contend againfl 
 
 " The Percy and the Douglas join'd together:" 
 
 indeed I myfelf fhould certainly have pre- 
 ferred the path- way, and all the accompa- 
 niments you have defcribed, to the prefent 
 bare banks ; but really you two, feern quite 
 i worn down with this laft part of our walk. 
 You bring to my mind a French novel* 1 
 
 Palais de la Veritc, by Madame de Genlis. 
 
 \vas
 
 C 2 H ] 
 
 was lately reading, in which a fairy inflicls 
 a fingular punifhment, on a young damfel 
 of a lively, volatile difpofition : fhe places 
 her in the midft of an immenfe fmooth, 
 green lawn, where (he forces her by her 
 enchantments, to be conftantly walking a 
 /low, regular pace : now, I think an eternal 
 walk, round and round the banks of one of 
 thefe ferpentine rivers, would be no bad pu- 
 nifhment in another world for piclurefque 
 Tinners." 
 
 " It would be a moft terrifying one/' faid 
 Mr. Howard ; " but I believe our prefent 
 purgatory is nearly over ; for if I am not 
 miftaken, that line of Scotch firs, announces 
 the head which it was meant to conceal. I 
 guefled right," continued he, when they got 
 up to it; "I am glad to fee, however, that 
 the improvements have proceeded no further, 
 for below, the banks have not been touched. 
 I now beg you will look at the contraft be- 
 tween
 
 C 21 5 1 
 
 tween nature, and fuch art as has been dif- 
 played here ; and obferve, at the fame tiine, 
 how very little the quality of fmoothnefs and 
 evennefs of furface, has to do with beauty. 
 Look at the reflection of that glaring white 
 building, and of the fhaven banks in the ftill 
 water above; we call that water fmooth, be- 
 caufe we perceive its furface to be fmooth 
 and even, though the impreflion which all 
 thefe harfh and edgy reflections of light pro- 
 duce on the eye, is analogous to that which 
 roughnefs produces on the touch : I do not 
 know how it affects you ; but to me the re- 
 flection of that building is fo irritating, that 
 I can hardly bear to look at it for any time. 
 Now, pray turn round, and look at that agi- 
 tated ftream, flowing between broken and 
 fedgy banks, and indillinclly reflecting the 
 waving foliage which hangs over it : that we 
 call rough, becaufe we know from habitual 
 obfervation, that its imprellion on the eye is 
 
 produced
 
 C 216 3 
 
 produced by uneven fiirfaces: at the fame 
 time, can any thing be more foft and harmo- 
 nious than the impreffion itfelf, or more ana- 
 logous to what the moft grateful and nicely 
 
 varied fmoothnefs would be to the touch ?" 
 r 
 
 : Howard/' cried Mr. Hamilton, " this 
 
 is an excellent mafqued battery ; and Sey- 
 mour can hardly guefs how dextroufly it is 
 pointed againft me : for I agree with you en- 
 tirely, that the upper fcene is harfh, and the 
 lower one foft and harmonious. Your point 
 is to prove, that fmoothnefs is not a princi- 
 ple of the beautiful, nor roughnefs of the pic- 
 turefque : then in order to make it appear that 
 fmoothnefs may be harm and irritating, and 
 analogous to what roughnefs is to the touch, 
 you fhew us a piece of (till fmooth water, 
 and a glaring white building reflected in it ; 
 which proves nothing more, than what every 
 body will acknowledge, namely, that a ftrong 
 light is irritating, and that white objects are 
 
 thofe
 
 C 217 i 
 
 thofe which reflect light moft ftrongly : for 
 the water itfelf, my good friend, is only a 
 mirror, and no more refponfible for the qua- 
 lities of the objects which it reflects, than 
 any other mirror. If a very perfect looking - 
 glafs were fhewn to you, would you deny 
 that the clearnefs and evennefs of its furface 
 were beauties, becaufe a Bardolph, with his 
 flaming carbuncled face in full fun-mine, 
 happened to be (landing oppofite to it? This 
 water is the looking-glafs, and that building 
 (though, if it had been brick, my compari- 
 fon would have been more perfecl) is Bar- 
 dolph. 
 
 '* But to fhew you in what a peculiar de- 
 gree, clear and ftill water accords with beau- 
 tiful fcenery, and beautiful objects, I will 
 put you in mind of a favourite defcription of 
 your's in Milton, that of the clear, fmooth 
 lake, in which Eve firft views her own image : 
 you furely muft feel, that, independently of 
 
 P its
 
 C 218 3 
 
 its being a mirror, the leaft ruffling of its 
 furface would deftroy the idea of that foft 
 repofe, which, above all things, is congenial 
 to beauty. What moft accords with beauty 
 next to flillnefs in water (and in many re- 
 fpe6ts, perhaps, in at leaft an equal degree,) 
 is gentle motion: and now, having ftated 
 fome of my principles, let us examine what 
 you call the rough fcene below. 
 
 " In the firft place, I muft take notice of 
 one exprefTion of your's in talking of it, which 
 {hews that you were thinking more of point- 
 ing your battery againft me, than of the 
 fcene before you : it diverted me to hear you 
 call that an agitated fiream, becaufe it was 
 to be a principal feature in the rough fcene, 
 and yet defcribed it as flowing between its 
 fedgy banks; and you fee it does flow very 
 gently where the reflections and the fedges 
 begin; for here, immediately below us, as 
 far as the effecl of the cafcade extends, and 
 
 where
 
 C 
 
 where the water is really agitated, there are 
 neither fedges nor reflections. The broken 
 banks, too, you fee are difguifed and foften- 
 ed by the foliage that hangs over them, and 
 by the fedges below ; and certainly the in- 
 diftincl reflections of fuch a bank in a flow- 
 ing ftream. is a very mild example of rough- 
 nefs, and much more fuited to Claude, than 
 Salvator. If the fairy, whom Seymour juft 
 now was fpeaking of, would only touch the 
 two banks with her wand, and make them 
 change their places, without changing the 
 water, the fcene above you muft own, 
 Howard would then be all foftnefs, har- 
 mony, and variety; and this below, would 
 beharfh and edgy, and infipid. 
 
 " Another thing/' continued Mr. Hamil- 
 ton, "I mud mention: you have laid no 
 flight ftrefson the analogy between the fight 
 and the touch; there cannot be a more evi- 
 dent one ; I think, however, there is this very 
 
 p 2 eflential
 
 C 
 
 efTential difference as to the manner in which 
 the two fenfes are affected : fharp, or rug- 
 ged furfaces of any kind, are always un- 
 pleafant to the touch 
 
 " 'Tis pain in each degree j" 
 
 whereas light is only painful when exceffive : 
 in all its various degrees, fhort of that ex- 
 cefs, it is the great, the only fource of plea- 
 fure ; and fo great is the pleafure, that light, 
 by the fplendour and magnificence of its ef- 
 fects, compenfates, in many inftances, the 
 pain it gives to the mere organ. You re- 
 member what Lear fays 
 
 " When the mind's free, 
 
 " The body's delicate :" 
 
 in the fame manner, when the imagination 
 is not affected, the organ is delicate ; and as 
 this white building, and fhaven bank, cer- 
 tainly have no hold on your imagination, 
 you are very impatient at the glare. 
 
 " How differently did you feel, when we 
 were on the weftern coaft a few days ago ! 
 
 how
 
 C 221 3 
 
 how fteadily did you look towards the fet- 
 ting fun, though I never yet faw a more 
 dazzling light; for, as a flight breeze had 
 curled the waves, they fparkled, as if the 
 whole furface of the fea had been fiudded 
 with diamonds: then, into the bargain, you 
 know there were a number of vefTels, whofe 
 white fails caught the light, which again 
 glanced upon the rocks, and made the win. 
 dow of the old caftle appear on fire. You 
 then never once complained of irritation; 
 and yet that ruffled fea was a thoufand times 
 more dazzling than this ftill water: which 
 proves, by-the-by, (as far as that fignifies) 
 how infinitely more irritating the effedl of 
 light becomes, when the furface which re- 
 flects it is broken. 
 
 " With regard to that bank and build- 
 ing, which have given rife to this difcuflion, 
 they would make you ftill more indignant, 
 if you had remembered the whole in its 
 p 3 former
 
 C 
 
 former ftate, as I do. I particularly regret 
 the part where the building now ftands, fo 
 naked and flaring; for, befides the bufhes 
 and trees which adorned the old bank, be- 
 fore it was newly formed and levelled, there 
 were feveral large mafTy ftones that appear- 
 ed in many parts, and all about it were the 
 richeft tufts of fern I ever beheld : unluckily, 
 I was abroad while the mifchief was doing, 
 or might, poffibly, have prevented it; had 
 I been here, how earneftly mould I have faid 
 to the owner, 
 
 " Teach them to plaee, and not remove, the stone 
 
 : ' On yoncjer bank, with moss and fern o'ergrown ; 
 
 " To cherish, not mow down, the weeds that creep 
 
 " Along the shore, and overhang the steep ; 
 
 " To break, not level, the slow-rising ground, 
 
 " And guard, not cut, the fern that shades it round."* 
 
 They now crofled the head of the water, 
 and, after pafiing on to the other fide of a 
 fmall hill, they found themfelves in a neglecl- 
 
 * The Landfcape, p. 40, 1. 194. 
 
 ed
 
 C 22 3 D 
 
 ed part of the park, full of old, ragged thorns, 
 that grew among a few flag-headed oaks. 
 They got entangled in this wild fcene, and 
 could not diftinguifh any path- way in the 
 long, coarfe grafs; at laft, however, after 
 wandering a good while, they faw the park- 
 gate, where fome horfes were (landing, 
 which, from the appearance of age, and the 
 roughnefs of their coats, looked as if they 
 had the run of the park in reward of their 
 pad fervices : near them, was an afs and her 
 foal ; and the whole made an excellent group, 
 and mixed very happily with the thorns and 
 oaks, and with the old park-pales, that were 
 feen here-and -there between the trees and 
 the thickets. 
 
 Mr. Seymour thought his two friends 
 flopped to look at this, rather longer than 
 was neceflary ; fo he dragged them on to 
 the gate, and then through it into a piece of 
 frefh pafture, in which, on a rifing bit of 
 P 4 ground
 
 C 22 4 3 
 
 ground to the right, were a number of very 
 beautiful cattle; fome (landing, others lying 
 down under the fhade of a large group of 
 flourifhing trees. While they were looking 
 at them, and admiring their beauty and high 
 condition, a groom patted through the gate 
 with two very fine horfes, which they un- 
 der flood from him, were juft going to be 
 turned out for half an hour, and for the firft 
 time. As foon as he had let them loofe, they 
 began 
 
 " Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud, 
 " Such was the hot condition of their blood." 
 
 After gallopping twice round the field, and 
 fcampering among the peaceful cattle, they 
 flopped and grazed very quietly near the 
 gate. 
 
 " This is really a very lucky incident," 
 faid Mr. Seymour; " I never fa w two more 
 beautiful horfes, in higher order, or with finer 
 action: they are as ileek as moles, and that 
 
 chefnut
 
 C 22 5 H 
 
 chefnut, particularly ; his coat is like filk, and 
 looks as if it were powdered with gold : then 
 this charming frefh turf, intermixed with 
 fuch flourifhing trees, and the cattle, and 
 the mildnefs of the evening, make it alto- 
 gether one of the moft pleafing fcenes I ever 
 faw: furely, Howard, you will allow that 
 this, at lead, is all foftnefs and harmony/' 
 
 " I can by no means allow it," faid Mr. 
 Howard, " particularly when compared with 
 the fcene you forced me away from, on the 
 other fide of the gate. You admire the fine 
 coats of thefe horfes and cattle ; but if you 
 were to confider the fubjecl: attentively, you 
 would find, that all fmooth animals, as their 
 forms are determined by marked outlines, 
 and the furfaces of their fkins produce ftrong 
 refl eel ions of light, have an effe6t on the 
 eye, correfpondent to what irritating rough- 
 nefs has on the touch; while the coats of 
 animals which are rough and lhaggy, (like 
 
 thofe
 
 thofe of the horfes and the afs on the other 
 fide,) by partly ab (orbing the light, and 
 partly foftening it by a mixture of tender 
 fhadows, and thus connecting and blend- 
 ing it with that which proceeds from fur- 
 rounding objects, produce an effect on the 
 eye fimilar to that which an undulated, and 
 gently varied fmoothnefs, affords to the 
 touch/' 
 
 " So, I find," faid Mr. Seymour, " that 
 thefe horfes and cattle, have a rough, irritat- 
 ing effect: on my eye, which I never fhould 
 have fufpected : and yet you, who refer 
 every thing fo much to painting, were de- 
 lighted with two pictures in the gallery, in 
 which there were horfes as fmooth, and with 
 coats as fine, as thefe ; and I particularly 
 remember your remarking, how admirably 
 thofe in the larger picture (I think the 
 painter's name was Rubens) harmonized 
 with all the furrounding objects : furely, that 
 
 which
 
 [ 227 n 
 
 which is in perfect harmony in a picture, 
 muft often, at leaft, be fo in nature ; and 
 cannot be like what irritating roughnefs is 
 to the touch. 
 
 " It is true, that I have not much at- 
 tended to thefe fubjecls; but fome of our 
 earlieft ideas are, that fmoothnefs is pleaf- 
 ing, and roughnefs unpleafmg, to the eye, 
 .as well as to the touch ; and thefe firft ideas 
 always prevail, though we afterwards learn 
 to difcriminate, and to modify them. In the 
 fame manner, bright and clear colours are 
 more pleafing to the eye than fuch as are 
 dingy ; and, therefore, almoft all men, I be- 
 lieve, would think the colours of thefe horfes, 
 and of this frefh turf, more beautiful than 
 thofe of the old ragged horfes, of the afs, 
 and of the fhaggy pafture in which they 
 were feeding. 
 
 " I obferved from the remarks which both 
 you and Hamilton made, on feveral of the 
 
 pictures
 
 C 228 ] 
 
 pictures to-day, that there may be as much 
 relative harmony between bright colours, and 
 the objecls round them, as between fuch as 
 are dingy; and yet it feems to me, that the 
 whole tenor of your argument goes to prove, 
 that, with refpecl: to colours, the mere ab- 
 fence of difcord, is the great principle of vi- 
 fible beauty ; whereas, if there be a pofitive 
 beauty in any thing, it muft be in colours : 
 the general effect, I allow, will not be beau- 
 tiful without harmony ; but neither can the 
 moft perfect: accord change the nature of 
 dull or ugly colours, and make them beau- 
 tiful. No, my dear friend, this negative 
 fyftem of your's is too refined for the gene- 
 rality of mankind ; and, as to myfelf, all that 
 you can fay on this point, however I may 
 admire the ingenuity of your arguments, 
 cannot make my early and inveterate habits : 
 fo, as the fun is getting low, we had better 
 make the beft of our way to the inn." 
 
 They
 
 C 229 ] 
 
 They then crofled the pafture, and, on 
 getting over the next ftile, faw the town they 
 were going to, ftanding on an eminence, 
 and in great beauty ; for the fun being al- 
 moft immediately behind it, gilded with his 
 laft beams the tops of the trees, and the bat- 
 tlements and pinnacles of the churches ; 
 while the lower buildings were in a mafs of 
 fhade. After a pleafant walk over fields, 
 the three friends got to their inn juft before 
 it was dufk, highly pleafed with the excur- 
 fion they had made, and full of new plans 
 for the reft of the time they were to pafs 
 together. 
 
 FINIS. 

 
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