selves to other things; but they continue in their old channel until the ftrength of the firft mover decays. This is the reafon of an appearance very frequent in madmen; that they remain whole days and nights, fometimes whole years, in the conftant repetition of fome remark, fome complaint, or fong; which having ftruck powerfully on their disordered imagination in the beginning of their phrenzy, every repetition reinforces it with new ftrength; and the hurry of their spirits, unrestrained by the curb of reason, continues it to the end of their lives.

SECT. IX.

SUCCESSION AND UNIFORMITY.

SUCCESSION and uniformity of parts are what constitute the artificial infinite. 1. Succeffion; which is requifite that the parts may be continued fo long and in fuch a direction, as by their frequent impulses on the sense to impress the imagination with an idea of their progrefs beyond their actual limits. 2. Uniformity; because if the figures of the parts fhould be changed, the imagination at every change finds a check; you are prefented at every alteration with the termination of one idea, and the beginning of another; by which means it becomes impoffible to continue that uninterrupted progreffion, which alone can ftamp on bounded

objects

objects the character of infinity.* It is in this kind of artificial infinity, I believe, we ought to look for the cause why a rotund has fuch a noble effect. For in a rotund, whether it be a building or a plantation, you can no where fix a boundary; turn which way you will, the fame object ftill feems to continue, and the imagination has no reft. But the parts must be uniform, as well as circularly disposed, to give this figure its full force; because any difference, whether it be in the difpofition or in the figure, or even in the colour of the parts, is highly prejudicial to the idea of infinity, which every change must check and interrupt, at every alteration commencing a new feries. On the fame principles of fucceffion and uniformity, the grand appearance of the antient heathen temples, which were generally oblong forms, with a range of uniform pillars on every fide, will be eafily accounted for. From the fame cause also may be derived the grand effect of the aifles in many of our own cathedrals. The form of a cross used in some churches feems to me not fo eligible as the parallelogram of the antients; at least, I imagine it is not fo proper for the outfide. For fuppofing the arms of the crofs every way equal, if you ftand in a direction

Mr. Addifon, in the Spectators concerning the pleasures of the imagination, thinks it is because in the rotund at one glance you fee half the building. This I do not imagine to be the real caufe.

parallel to any of the fide walls, or colonnades, instead of a deception that makes the building more extended than it is, you are cut off from a confiderable part (two thirds) of its actual length; and to prevent all poffibility of progreffion, the arms of the cross taking a new direction, make a right angle with the beam, and thereby wholly turn the imagination from the repetition of the former idea. Or fuppofe the fpectator placed where he may take a direct view of fuch a building, what will be the confequence? the neceffary confequence will be, that a good part of the basis of each angle formed by the interfection of the arms of the cross, must be inevitably loft; the whole muft of course affume a broken unconnected figure; the lights must be unequal, here ftrong, and there weak; without that noble gradation, which the perspective always effects on parts difpofed uninterruptedly in a right line. Some or all of these objections will lie against every figure of a cross, in whatever view you take it. I exemplified them in the Greek crofs, in which these faults appear the most strongly; but they appear in fome degree in all forts of croffes. Indeed there is nothing more prejudicial to the grandeur of buildings, than to abound in angles; a fault obvious in many; and owing to an inordinate thirst for variety, which, whenever it prevails, is fure to leave very little true taste.

SECT.

SECT. X.

MAGNITUDE IN BUILDING.

To the fublime in building, greatness of dimenfions feems requifite; for on a few parts, and those small, the imagination cannot rise to any idea of infinity. No greatness in the manner can effectually compensate for the want of proper dimenfions. There is no danger of drawing men into extravagant designs by this rule; it carries its own caution along with it. Becaufe too great a length in buildings deftroys the purpose of greatness, which it was intended to promote; the perspective will leffen it in height as it gains in length; and will bring it at last to a point; turning the whole figure into a fort of triangle, the pooreft in its effect of almost any figure that can be presented to the eye. I have ever obferved, that colonnades and avenues of trees of a moderate length, were without comparison far grander, than when they were fuffered to run to immense distances. A true artist should put a generous deceit on the spectators, and effect the noblest designs by easy methods. Designs that are vaft only by their dimensions, are always the fign of a common and low imagination. No work of art can be great, but as it deceives; to be otherwise is the prerogative of nature only. A good eye will fix the me

dium betwixt an exceffive length or height (for the fame objection lies against both), and a short or broken quantity: and perhaps it might be afcertained to a tolerable degree of exactnefs, if it was my purpose to defcend far into the particulars of any art.

SECT. XI.

INFINITY IN PLEASING OBJECTS.

INFINITY, though of another kind, caufes much of our pleasure in agreeable, as well as of our delight in fublime images. The fpring is the pleasantest of the seasons; and the young of moft animals, though far from being completely fafhioned, afford a more agreeable fenfation than the full-grown; because the imagination is entertained with the promise of fomething more, and does not acquiefce in the present object of the fenfe. In unfinished sketches of drawing, I have often feen fomething which pleased me beyond the best finishing; and this I believe proceeds from the cause I have juft now affigned.

SECT.