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penfity, accounts for a certain punishment by a resemblance between it and the crime, too fubtile for common apprehenfion. Treating of Mettus Fuffetius, the Alban general, who, for treachery to the Romans his allies, was fentenced to be torn to pieces by horfes, he puts the following fpeech in the mouth of Tullus Hoftilius, who decreed the punishment. "Mette "Fuffeti, inquit, fi ipfe difcere poffes fidem ac "fœdera fervare, vivo tibi ea difciplina a me "adhibita effet. Nunc, quoniam tuum infana"bile ingenium eft, at tu tuo fupplicio doce "humanum genus, ea fancta credere, quæ a te "violata funt. Ut igitur paulo ante animum "inter Fidenatem Romanamque rem ancipitem

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gefifti, ita jam corpus paffim diftrahendum "dabis." By the fame influence, the fentence is often executed upon the very spot where the crime was committed. In the Electra of Sophocles, Egiftheus is dragged from the theatre into an inner room of the fuppofed palace, to fuffer death where he murdered Agamemnon. Shakefpeare, whofe knowledge of nature is no lefs profound than extenfive, has not overlooked this propenfity:

Othello. Get me fome poifon, Iago, this night; I'll not expoftulate with her, left her body and her beauty unprovide my mind again; this night, Iago.

* Lib. 1. fect. 28.

Iago.

Iago. Do it not with poison; ftrangle her in bed, even in the bed fhe hath contaminated.

Othello. Good, good: The justice of it pleases; very

good.

Othello, Act IV. Sc. 5.

Warwick. From off the gates of York fetch down the head,

Your father's head, which Clifford placed there.

Inftead whereof let his fupply the room.
Measure for measure must be answered.

Third Part of Henry VI. Act 11. Sc. 9.

Perfons in their laft moments are generally feized with an anxiety to be buried with their relations. In the Amynta of Taffo, the lover, hearing that his miftrefs was torn to pieces by a wolf, expreffes a defire to die the fame death *.

Upon the fubject in general I have two remarks to add. The firft concerns refemblance, which, when too entire, hath no effect, however different in kind the things compared may be. The remark is applicable to works of art only; for natural objects of different kinds have fcarce ever an entire refemblance. To give an example in a work of art, marble is a fort of matter very different from what composes an animal; and marble cut into a human figure produces great pleasure by the resemblance; but, if a marble ftatue be coloured like a picture, the refemblance

* A& IV. Sc. 2.

femblance is fo entire, as at a diftance to make the ftatue appear a perfon: we discover the mistake when we approach; and no other emotion is raised, but surprise occafioned by the deception: The figure ftill appears a real person, rather than an imitation; and we muft use reflection to correct the miftake. This cannot happen in a picture; for the refemblance can never be fo entire as to disguise the imitation.

The other remark relates to contraft. Emotions make the greateft figure when contrafted in fucceffion; but the fucceffion ought neither to be rapid, nor immoderately flow: if too flow, the effect of contraft becomes faint by the diftance of the emotions; and if rapid, no fingle emotion has room to expand itself to its full fize, but is ftifled, as it were, in the birth, by a fucceeding emotion. The funeral oration of the Bishop of Meaux upon the Dutchefs of Orleans is a perfect hodge-podge of chearful and melancholy reprefentations following each other in the quickest fucceffion: oppofite emotions are best felt in fucceffion; but each emotion separately fhould be raised to its due pitch, before another be introduced.

What is above laid down, will enable us to determine a very important queftion concerning emotions raised by the fine arts, namely, Whether ought fimilar emotions to fucceed each other, or diffimilar? The emotions raised by the fine arts are for the most part too nearly related

to

to make a figure by refemblance; and for that reafon their fucceffion ought to be regulated as much as poffible by contraft. This holds confeffedly in epic and dramatic compofitions; and the best writers, led perhaps by tafte more than by reasoning, have generally aimed at that beauty. It holds equally in mufic: in the fame cantata, all the variety of emotions that are within the power of mufic may not only be indulged, but, to make the greateft figure, ought to be contrafted. In gardening, there is an additional reafon for the rule: the emotions raised by that art are at best so faint, that every artifice fhould be employed to give them their utmost vigour : a field may be laid out in grand, sweet, gay, neat, wild, melancholy scenes; and when these are viewed in fucceffion, grandeur ought to be contrafted with neatnefs, regularity with wildness, and gaiety with melancholy, so as that each emotion may fucceed its oppofite: nay it is an improvement to intermix in the fucceffion rude uncultivated fpots as well as unbounded views, which in themselves are difagreeable, but in fucceffion heighten the feeling of the agreeable objects; and we have nature for our guide, which in her most beautiful landscapes often intermixes rugged rocks, dirty marshes, and barren ftony heaths. The greatest mafters of mufic have the fame view in their compofitions: the fecond part of an Italian fong feldom conveys any fentiment; and, by its harshness, seems purposely contrived

contrived to give a greater relish for the interesting parts of the compofition.

A small garden comprehended under a fingle view, affords little opportunity for that embellishment. Diffimilar emotions require different tones of mind; and therefore in conjunction can never be pleasant*: gaiety and fweetness may be combined, or wildness and gloominess; but a compofition of gaiety and gloominess is diftafteful. The rude uncultivated copartment of furze and broom in Richmond garden hath a good effect in the fucceffion of objects; but a fpot of that nature would be infufferable in the midft of a polished parterre or flower-plot. A garden, therefore, if not of great extent, admits not diffimilar emotions; and in ornamenting a fmall garden, the fafeft course is to confine it to a fingle expreffion. For the fame reason, a landscape ought alfo to be confined to a fingle expreffion; and accordingly it is a rule in painting, That if the fubject be gay, every figure ought to contribute to that emotion.

It follows from the foregoing train of reafoning, that a garden near a great city ought to have an air of folitude. The folitarinefs again of a waste country ought to be contrafted in forming a garden; no temples, no obfcure walks; but jets d'eau, cascades, objects active, gay and fplendid. Nay, fuch a garden fhould in fome measure avoid imitating nature, by taking

* See Chap. 2. Part 4.

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