him a more perfect master of his mother tongue. Cicero tells us, that in translating two orations, which the most celebrated orators of Greece pronounced against each other, he performed this task not as a servile interpreter but as an orator, preserving the sentiments, forms, and figures of the original, but adapting the expression to the taste and manners of the Romans :....." In quibus non "verbum pro verbo necesse habui reddere, sed genus " omnium verborum vimque servavi;" " in which I did not think it was necessary to translate literally word for word, but I preserved the natural and full scope of the whole." Of the same opinion was Horace, who says in his Art of Poetry, Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus Nor word for word translate with painful care....... Nevertheless, in taking the liberty here granted, we are apt to run into the other extreme, and substitute equivalent thoughts and phrases, till hardly any features of the original remain. The metaphors of figures, especially in poetry, ought to be as religiously preserved as the images. of painting, which we cannot alter or exchange without destroying, or injuring at least, the character and style of the original. In this manner the Preceptor will sow the seeds of that taste, which will soon germinate, rise, blossom, and produce perfect fruit by dint of future care and cultivation. In order to restrain the luxuriancy of the young imagination, which is apt to run riot, to enlarge the stock of ideas, exercise the reason, and ripen the judgment, the pupil must be engaged in the severer study of Science, He must learn Geometry, which Plato recommends for strengthening the mind, and enabling it to think with precision. He must be made acquainted with Geography and Chronology, and trace Philosophy through all her branches. Without Geography and Chronology he will not be able to acquire a distinct idea of History; nor judge of the propriety of many interesting scenes, and a thousand allusions, that present themselves in the works of Genius. Nothing opens the mind so much as the researches of Philosophy; they inspire us with sublime conceptions of the Creator, and subject, as it were, all nature to our command. These bestow that liberal turn of thinking, and in a great measure contribute to that universality in learning, by which a man of taste ought to be eminently distinguished. But History is the inexhaustible source, from which he will derive his most useful knowledge respecting the progress of the human mind, the constitution of government, the rise and decline of empires, the revolution of arts, the variety of character, and the vicissitudes of fortune. The knowledge of History enables the Poet not only to paint characters, but also to describe magnificent and interesting scenes of battle and adventure. Not that the Poet or Painter ought to be restrained to the letter of historical truth. History represents what has really happened in nature; the other arts exhibit what might have happened, with such exaggeration of circumstance and feature, as may be deemed an improvement on Nature: but this exaggeration must not be carried beyond the bounds of probability; and these, generally speaking, the knowledge of History will ascertain. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a man actually existing, whose proportions should answer to those of the Greek statue, distinguished by the name of the Apollo of Belvedere; or to produce a woman similar in proportion of parts to the other celebrated piece called the Venus de Medicis; therefore it may be truly affirmed, that they are not conformable to the real standard of nature: nevertheless every artist will own that they are the very archetypes of grace, elegance, and symmetry; and every judging eye must behold them with admiration, as improvements on the lines and lineaments of nature. The truth is, the sculptor or statuary composed the various proportions in nature from a great number of different subjects, every individual of which he found imperfect or defective in some one particular, though beautiful in all the rest; and from these observations, corroborated by taste and judgment, he formed an ideal pattern, according to which his idea was modelled, and produced in execution. Every body knows the story of Zeuxis, the famous painter of Heraclea, who, according to Pliny, invented the chiaro oscuro, or disposition of light and shade, among the ancients, and excelled all his contemporaries in the chromatique, or art of colouring. This great artist being. employed to draw a perfect beauty in the character of Helen, to be placed in the Temple of Juno, culled out five of the most beautiful damsels the city could produce, and, selecting what was excellent in each, combined them in one picture according to the predisposition of his fancy, so that it shone forth an amazing model of perfection. In like manner every man of genius, regulated by true taste, entertains in his imagination an ideal beauty, conceived and cultivated as an improvement upon nature: and this we refer to the article of invention. 1 It is the business of Art to imitate Nature, but not with a servile pencil; and to chuse those attitudes and dispositions only, which are beautiful and engaging. With this view we must avoid all disagreeable prospects of Nature, which excite the ideas of abhorrence and disgust.. For example, a painter would not find his account in ex-hibiting the resemblance of a dead carcase half consumed by vermin, or of swine wallowing in ordure, or of a beggar lousing himself on a dunghill, though these scenes. should be painted never so naturally, and all the world must allow that the scenes were taken from Nature, be-cause the merit of the imitation would be greatly overbalanced by the vile choice of the artist. There are nevertheless many scenes of horror, which please in the representation, from a certain interesting greatness, which we shall endeavour to explain, when we come to consider the sublime.. * Præbete igitur mihi quæso, inquit, ex istis virginibus: formosissimas, dum pingo id, quod pollicitus sum vobis, ut mutum in simulacrum ex animali exemplo veritas transferatur. Ille autem quinque delegit.....Neque enim putavit omnia,. quæ quæreret ad venustatem, uno in corpore se reperire pos-se; ideo quod nihil simplici in genere omnibus ex partibus. perfectum natura expolivit. Cic. lib. 2. de Inv. cap. 1, Were we to judge every production by the rigorous rules of Nature, we should reject the Iliad of Homer, the Eneid of Virgil, and every celebrated tragedy of antiquity and the present times, because there is no such thing in Nature as an Hector or Turnus talking in hexameter, or an Othello in blank verse: we should condemn the Hercules of Sophocles, and the Miser of Moliere, because we never knew a hero so strong as the one, or a wretch so sordid as the other. But if we consider Poetry as an elevation of natural dialogue, as a delightful vehicle for conveying the noblest sentiments of heroism and patriot virtue, to regale the sense with the sounds of musical expression, while the fancy is ravished with enchanting images, and the heart warmed to rapture and extasy, we must allow that Poetry is a perfection to which Nature would gladly aspire; and that though it surpasses, it does not deviate from her, provided the characters are marked with propriety and sustained with genius. Characters therefore, both in Poetry and Painting, may be a little overcharged or exaggerated without offering violence to Nature: nay, they must be exaggerated in order to be striking, and to preserve the idea of imitation, whence the reader and spectator derive in many instances their chief delight. If we meet a common acquaintance in the street, we see him without emotion; but should we chance to spy his portrait well executed, we are struck with pleasing admiration. In this case the pleasure arises entirely from the imitation. We every day hear unmoved the natives of Ireland and Scotland speaking their own dialects; but should an Englishman mimic either, we are apt to burst out into a loud laugh of applause, being surprised and tickled by the imitation alone; though at the same time, we cannot but allow that the imitation is imperfect. We are more affected by reading Shakespeare's description of Dover Cliff, and Otway's picture of the Old Hag, than we should be, were we actually placed on the summit of the one, or met in reality with such a beldame as the other; because in reading these descriptions we refer to our own experience, and perceive with surprise the justness of the imitations. But if it is so close as to be mistaken for Nature, the pleasure then will cease because the pinos or imitation no longer appears. Aristotle says, that all Poetry and Music is, imitation,* whether epic, tragic, or comic, whether vocal or instrumental, from the pipe or the lyre. He observes, that in man there is a propensity to imitate even from his infancy; that the first perceptions of the mind are acquired by imitation; and seems to think that the pleasure derived from imitation is the gratification of an appetite implanted by Nature. We should rather think the pleasure it gives, arises from the minds contemplating that excellency of art, which thus rivals Nature, and seems to vie with her in creating such a striking resemblance of her works. Thus the arts may be justly termed imitative, even in the article of invention: for, in forming a character, contriving an incident, and describing a scene, he must still keep Nature in view, and refer every particular of his invention to her standard; otherwise his production will be destitute of truth and probability, without which the beauties of imitation cannot subsist. It will be a monster of incongruity, such as Horace alludes to, in the beginning of his Epistle to the Pisos : Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam Suppose a painter to a human head Should join a horse's neck, and wildly spread * Ετοποιεα δὴ καὶ ἡ τῆς τραγωιας ποίησις, ἔτι δὲ κωμωδία κα ή διθυραμβοποιητική, καὶ τῆς αὐλιτικῆς ἢ πλιίτη και κιθαριςικῆς, πᾶσαι τογχανδοιν ἔσαι μιμὴς εἰς τὸ συνόλον. |