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Show so J indiftintl:, and therefore does not compel us to attend to its improbability, in the following beautiful lines of Shakefpear: '' - She never told her love ; But let Concealment, like a worm i' th' bud, Feed on her damaik cheek."- But in thefe lines below the perfon of Reafon obtrudes itfelf into our company, and becomes difagreeable by its diftinCl:nefs, and confequent improbability : " To Reafon I flew, and intreated her aid, Who paufed on my cafe, and each circumftance weigh'd; Then gravely reply'd in return to my prayer, That Hebe was faireft of all that were fair. That's a truth, reply'd I, I've no need to be taught, I came to you, Reafon, to find out a fault .. If that's all, fays Reafon, return as you came, To find fault with Hebe would forfeit my name., Allegoric figures are on this account in generallefs manageable in painting and in ftatuary than in poetry; and can feldom be introduced in the two former arts in company with natural figures, as is evident from the ridiculous effeCt of many of the paintings of Rubens in the Luxemburgh gallery ; and for this reafon, becaufe their improbability becomes more ftriking, when there are the figures of real perfons by their fide to compare them with. Mrs. Angelica Kauffman, well apprifed of this circumftance, has introduced no mortal figures amongft her Cupids and her Graces. And the great Roubiliac, in his unrivalled monument of Time and Fame ftruggling for the trophy of General Wade, has only hung up a medallion of the head of the hero of the piece. There are, however, [ 51 ] fome allegoric figures, which we have fo often heard defcribed or feen delineated, that we almoil: forget that they do not exift in common life; and thence view them without ail:oniiliment; as the figures of the heathen mythology, of angels, devils, death, and time; and almoil: believe them to be realities, even when they are mixed with reprefentations of the natural forms of man. Whence I conclude, that a certain degree of probability is necelfary to prevent us from revolting with difiail:e from unnatural images ; unlefs we are otherwife fo much interefted in the contemplation of them as not to perceive their improbability. B. Is this reafoning about degrees of probability juil:?-When Sir Joiliua Reynolds, who is unequalled both in the theory and praCtice of his art, and who is a great mail:er of the "pen as well as the pencil, has afferted in a difcourfe delivered to the Royal Academy , December 1 1, I 786, that " the higher fiyles of painting, like th;: " higher kinds of the Drama, do not aim at any thing like decep ~ " tion; or have any expeCtation that the f peCtators fhould think the " events there reprefented are really paffing before them." And h., then accufes Mr. Fielding of bad judgement, when he attempts tc, compliment Mr. Garrick in one of his novels, by introducing at ignorant man, miftaking the reprefentation of a fcene in Hamlet for a reality; and thinks, becaufe he was an ignorant man, he was lefs liable to make fuch a mifiake. P. It is a metaphyfical quefiion, and requires more attentio 1 than Sir J ofhua has beil:owed upon it.-You will allow that "'.~ are perfeCtly deceived in our dreams: and that even in our wakin;~· reveries, we are often fo much abforbed in the contemplation c 1 wh:1t paffes in our imaginations, that for a while we do not atten l to the lapfe of time or to our own locality; and thus fuffer a fimib t' kind of deception, as in our dreams. That is, we believe thin6., prefent before our eyes, which are not fo. H l |