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Dissertations On The Polite Arts. No. Iv.
" This work has faults : " such a judgment is in the power of most people to make . But ,- " This work has not all the beauties it is capable of , " is another , which is reserved only for judges ofthe fiist order . We may easily perceive the reason both oP"the one . and the other . To give the first judgment , it suffices to compare the performance with the ordinary ideas which are always with us when we would judge of arts ; and which offer us plansor sketches at least
, , by which , we may find out the principal faults in the execution . But for the second , we must have taken in all the possible extent of art in the subject chosen by the author ; a gift scarcely granted to the greatest geniuses . You have the idea of a perfect tragedy . You have felt the emotions increase at each scene ; the stile is noble and elevated . You are
attached to the fate of unhappy Romeo , you weep for him , you are fond of your grief , and you enjoy your grief . Remember what kind and degree of feeling you have experienced ; and it shall for the future be your rule to go by . If another author is happy enough still to add to it , your taste becomes more elevated and more exquisite : and it must be by that degree of perfection that you judge of other tragedies .
Let us try to reach this ideal beauty , which , must be our supreme law . Let us read the most excellent works of the same kind . We are ravished with the enthusiasm and ecstacy of Homer , and with ttie wisdom and neatness of Virgil . Shakspeare elevates us with his grandeur , and Olway charms us with his sweetness . Let us make a happy mixture of the single qualities of these great Men : thence we
shall form an ideal model much superior to any one that exists ; and this model shall be the sovereign and infallible rule of all our decisions . It was thus the Stoics judged of wisdom by the ideal sage they created ; and that jtivmul found the greatest poets beneath the idea he had conceived of poetry , by a sentiment which his words could not express :
Qualem ncqueo monflrsre & fentio tantum . OF PAINTING . HAVING in the forgoing Dissertationsspoken of all the Polite Arts taken together , we shall now treat of them separately . And first of Painting . Poetry and Painting have so exact a resemblance to one another
, that to treat of them both at the same time , we should have nothing to do but to put poetry , fable , and versification , in the room of painting , design , and colouring . It is the same genius that creates in one and the other : the same taste that directs the Artists in the choice , disposition , and assortment of the great and little parts : that makes the groups and contrast ; that lays oil and adapts-the colours : in a
word ; that regulates the composition , design , and colouring . We shall afterwards speak more largely of poetry : so that we shall here say only a word or two concerning the methods painting takes , in imitating and expressing nature . Supposing the ideal painting has been conceived according to rules hi tlie painter ' s imagination : his first operation to express . and pro-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Dissertations On The Polite Arts. No. Iv.
" This work has faults : " such a judgment is in the power of most people to make . But ,- " This work has not all the beauties it is capable of , " is another , which is reserved only for judges ofthe fiist order . We may easily perceive the reason both oP"the one . and the other . To give the first judgment , it suffices to compare the performance with the ordinary ideas which are always with us when we would judge of arts ; and which offer us plansor sketches at least
, , by which , we may find out the principal faults in the execution . But for the second , we must have taken in all the possible extent of art in the subject chosen by the author ; a gift scarcely granted to the greatest geniuses . You have the idea of a perfect tragedy . You have felt the emotions increase at each scene ; the stile is noble and elevated . You are
attached to the fate of unhappy Romeo , you weep for him , you are fond of your grief , and you enjoy your grief . Remember what kind and degree of feeling you have experienced ; and it shall for the future be your rule to go by . If another author is happy enough still to add to it , your taste becomes more elevated and more exquisite : and it must be by that degree of perfection that you judge of other tragedies .
Let us try to reach this ideal beauty , which , must be our supreme law . Let us read the most excellent works of the same kind . We are ravished with the enthusiasm and ecstacy of Homer , and with ttie wisdom and neatness of Virgil . Shakspeare elevates us with his grandeur , and Olway charms us with his sweetness . Let us make a happy mixture of the single qualities of these great Men : thence we
shall form an ideal model much superior to any one that exists ; and this model shall be the sovereign and infallible rule of all our decisions . It was thus the Stoics judged of wisdom by the ideal sage they created ; and that jtivmul found the greatest poets beneath the idea he had conceived of poetry , by a sentiment which his words could not express :
Qualem ncqueo monflrsre & fentio tantum . OF PAINTING . HAVING in the forgoing Dissertationsspoken of all the Polite Arts taken together , we shall now treat of them separately . And first of Painting . Poetry and Painting have so exact a resemblance to one another
, that to treat of them both at the same time , we should have nothing to do but to put poetry , fable , and versification , in the room of painting , design , and colouring . It is the same genius that creates in one and the other : the same taste that directs the Artists in the choice , disposition , and assortment of the great and little parts : that makes the groups and contrast ; that lays oil and adapts-the colours : in a
word ; that regulates the composition , design , and colouring . We shall afterwards speak more largely of poetry : so that we shall here say only a word or two concerning the methods painting takes , in imitating and expressing nature . Supposing the ideal painting has been conceived according to rules hi tlie painter ' s imagination : his first operation to express . and pro-