causes in nature, his consciousness being the focus and mirror of both,-for this does the artist for a time abandon the external real in order to return to it with a complete sympathy with its internal and actual. For of all we see, hear, 5 feel and touch the substance is and must be in ourselves; and therefore there is no alternative in reason between the dreary (and thank heaven! almost impossible) belief that every thing around us is but a phantom, or that the life which is in us is in them likewise; and that to know is to Io resemble, when we speak of objects out of ourselves, even as within ourselves to learn is, according to Plato, only to recollect ;-the only effective answer to which, that I have been fortunate to meet with, is that which Pope has consecrated for future use in the line

15

"And coxcombs vanquish Berkeley with a grin !

The artist must imitate that which is within the thing, that which is active through form and figure, and discourses to us by symbols-the Natur-geist, or spirit of nature, as we unconsciously imitate those whom we love; for so 20 only can he hope to produce any work truly natural in the object and truly human in the effect: The idea which puts the form together cannot itself be the form. It is above form, and is its essence, the universal in the individual, or the individuality itself,—the glance and the exponent of 25 the indwelling power.

Each thing that lives has its moment of self-exposition, and so has each period of each thing, if we remove the disturbing forces of accident. To do this is the business of ideal art, whether in images of childhood, youth, or age, 30 in man or in woman. Hence a good portrait is the abstract of the personal; it is not the likeness for actual comparison, but for recollection. This explains why the likeness of a very good portrait is not always recognized; because some persons never abstract, and amongst these are especially to

be numbered the near relations and friends of the subject, in consequence of the constant pressure and check exercised on their minds by the actual presence of the original. And each thing that only appears to live has also its possible position of relation to life, as nature herself testifies, who 5 where she cannot be, prophesies her being in the crystallized metal, or the inhaling plant.

The charm, the indispensable requisite, of sculpture is unity of effect. But painting rests in a material remoter from nature, and its compass is therefore greater. Light 10 and shade give external, as well as internal, being even with all its accidents, whilst sculpture is confined to the latter. And here I may observe that the subjects chosen for works of art, whether in sculpture or painting, should be such as really are capable of being expressed and conveyed within 15 the limits of those arts. Moreover they ought to be such as will affect the spectator by their truth, their beauty, or their sublimity, and therefore they may be addressed to the judgement, the senses, or the reason. The peculiarity of the impression which they may make, may be derived either 20 from color and form, or from proportion and fitness, or from the excitement of the moral feelings; or all these may be combined. Such works as do combine these sources of effect must have the preference in dignity.

Imitation of the antique may be too exclusive, and may 25 produce an injurious effect on modern sculpture ;—Ist, generally, because such an imitation cannot fail to have a tendency to keep the attention fixed on externals rather than on the thought within ;-2ndly, because, accordingly, it leads the artist to rest satisfied with that which is always 30 imperfect, namely, bodily form, and circumscribes his views of mental expression to the ideas of power and grandeur only;-3rdly, because it induces an effort to combine together two incongruous things, that is to say, modern \feelings in antique forms;-4thly, because it speaks in a 35

language, as it were, learned and dead, the tones of which, being unfamiliar, leave the common spectator cold and unimpressed ;—and lastly, because it necessarily causes a neglect of thoughts, emotions and images of profounder 5 interest and more exalted dignity, as motherly, sisterly, and brotherly love, piety, devotion, the divine become human,— the Virgin, the Apostle, the Christ. The artist's principle in the statue of a great man should be the illustration of departed merit; and I cannot but think that a skilful adopIo tion of modern habiliments would, in many instances, give a variety and force of effect which a bigoted adherence to Greek or Roman costume precludes. It is, I believe, from artists finding Greek models unfit for several important modern purposes, that we see so many allegorical figures 15 on monuments and elsewhere. Painting was, as it were, a new art, and being unshackled by old models it chose its own subjects, and took an eagle's flight. And a new field seems opened for modern sculpture in the symbolical expression of the ends of life, as in Guy's monument, Chan20 trey's children in Worcester Cathedral, &c.

Architecture exhibits the greatest extent of the difference from nature which may exist in works of art. It involves all the powers of design, and is sculpture and painting inclusively. It shews the greatness of man, and should at the 25 same time teach him humility.

Music is the most entirely human of the fine arts, and has the fewest analoga in nature. Its first delightfulness is simple accordance with the ear; but it is an associated thing, and recalls the deep emotions of the past with an 30 intellectual sense of proportion. Every human feeling is greater and larger than the exciting cause,-a proof, I think, that man is designed for a higher state of existence; and this is deeply implied in music, in which there is always something more and beyond the immediate expression.

35

With regard to works in all the branches of the fine arts,

[ I may remark that the pleasure arising from novelty must of course be allowed its due place and weight. This pleasure consists in the identity of two opposite elements, that is to say-sameness and variety. If in the midst of the variety there be not some fixed object for the attention, the un- 5 ceasing succession of the variety will prevent the mind from observing the difference of the individual objects; and the only thing remaining will be the succession, which will then produce precisely the same effect as sameness. This we experience when we let the trees or hedges pass before the 10 fixed eye during a rapid movement in a carriage, or, on the other hand, when we suffer a file of soldiers or ranks of men in procession to go on before us without resting the eye on any one in particular. In order to derive pleasure from the occupation of the mind, the principle of unity must 15 always be present, so that in the midst of the multeity the centripetal force be never suspended, nor the sense be fatigued by the predominance of the centrifugal force. This unity in multeity I have elsewhere stated as the principle of beauty. It is equally the source of pleasure in variety, 20 and in fact a higher term including both. What is the seclusive or distinguishing term between them?

Remember that there is a difference between form as proceeding, and shape as superinduced ;-the latter is either the death or the imprisonment of the thing;—the former 25 is its self-witnessing and self-effected sphere of agency. Art would or should be the abridgment of nature. Now the fulness of nature is without character, as water is purest when without taste, smell, or color; but this is the highest, the apex only, it is not the whole. The object of art is to 30 give the whole ad hominem; hence each step of nature hath its ideal, and hence the possibility of a climax up to the perfect form of a harmonized chaos.

To the idea of life victory or strife is necessary; as virtue consists not simply in the absence of vices, but in the over- 35

1

coming of them. So it is in beauty. The sight of what is subordinated and conquered heightens the strength and the pleasure; and this should be exhibited by the artist either inclusively in his figure, or else out of it, and beside it to 5 act by way of supplement and contrast. And with a view to this, remark the seeming identity of body and mind in infants, and thence the loveliness of the former; the commencing separation in boyhood, and the struggle of equilibrium in youth: thence onward the body is first simply 10 indifferent; then demanding the translucency of the mind

not to be worse than indifferent; and finally all that presents the body as body becoming almost of an excremental nature.

E