tion by exaggerating and combining in one hypothetic object every excellence, that can possibly belong to the whole sex; and the first individual, that meets the eye, with any exterior signs of any of these ideal excellences, is immediately decorated with them all by the creative magic of a vigorous and fertile fancy. Hence she instantaneously becomes the object of the most fervent affection, which is as instantaneously cooled by possession: for, as it was not the object herself, but a false idea of her raised in a heated imagination, that called forth all the lover's raptures, all immediately vanish at the detection of his delusion; and a degree of disgust proportioned to the disappointment, of which it is the inevitable consequence, instantly succeeds. Thus it happens that what are called love matches are seldom or never happy. 61. Mere animal desire is a natural or physical affection of the mind, excited by corporeal stimuli, and therefore existing, in a greater or less degree, in every individual of the human species, whose organization is complete but the sentiment of love, being a social passion acquired by social and artificial habits, is never felt at all by persons of very cold and phlegmatic tempers; nor by those, whose attention is steadily fixed, or their minds deeply absorbed, either in the active pursuits of worldly business, CHAP. II. tion. or the silent meditations of abstract study. Neither is it ever felt in any violent degree, Of Imaginaunless by persons, whose imaginations are naturally warm and vivid; and who have, at the same time, leisure to indulge, and society to exercise them. Such persons, when they have no other pursuits, are always in love, from the age of puberty to that of decrepitude; so that their whole lives may be said to be passed in a perpetual renovation of hope, and a constant succession of disappointment: for whether the object prove attainable or not, disappointment equally ensues, though in different ways. No real charms either of mind or body ever reach the visionary perfections, which a lively and glowing imagination stimulated by keen sensibility bestows on an admired object and though we may read, in poems and romances, of chaste or unsuccessful love continuing during long periods of years, and only ending with the lives of the parties, it may reasonably be presumed that such love, if it ever existed at all, partook more of the nature of a sophism, than a sentiment; and was rather a metaphysical delusion of the understanding, than an energetic affection of the soul. 62. Such appears to have been the love of Petrarch, Cowley, Waller, and other such lovers in verse; whose quaint illustrations, analytical definitions, and metaphysical explanations of CHAP. II. Of Imagination. their passion abundantly prove that they never really felt it; but only chose it as a fashionable subject, on which to display their talents and obtain distinction. 63. There is another and very different description of erotic poets, who, combining the refinements of sentimental love, which they have acquired amidst the elegancies of the most polished society; with the manners of primæval simplicity, and the imagery of pastoral life, have called into being a race of mortals utterly unknown to nature; such as love-sick sentimental savages, shepherds, and ploughmen. Of this description are the cyclops and swains of the elegant Theocritus; who, bred in the polished city of Syracuse, and writing in the still more polished court of the second Ptolemy, gave a new character to his own delicate sentiments of love, by expressing them in the archaic simplicity of dialect, or with the native rusticity of imagery of Sicilian peasants; and the novelty of that character, the simplicity of that dialect, and the beauty and gaiety of that imagery naturally rendered the sentiments expressed more pleasing and impressive: but, if any of the courtiers of Alexandria had gone among the mountains of Sicily in quest of a Thyrsis or Amaryllis, they would have felt the same disappointment, as a London cockney would feel, were he to seek, in the mountains of Scotland S or Wales, for such shepherds and shepherdesses, as he sees in an opera. 64. It has of late been very much the fashion of the English as well as the French and German theatres, to bring examples of the most pure heroic love, and disinterested sentimental gallantry from the lowest ranks of societyfrom common soldiers, mendicants, robbers, and slaves; and not only the courtiers and cockneys of London and Paris, but scholars and philosophers of the first eminence gave themselves up to the delusion; which seems to be not entirely cured even by the events of the French revolution; though that has afforded such abundant instances of the delicate sentiments and tender affections of men, whose minds are neither exalted by situation, enlarged by science, nor refined by culture. Narrow sordid selfishness is, with few exceptions, the universal principle of action in such men; and not less so in the pursuits of love than in those of interest or ambition. Personal beauty, as an incentive to appetite, and a capacity for labour and household management, are the qualifications generally sought for: but as to any of that refinement of mental affection or sympathy of soul, which makes beauty an object of more pure and exalted love in the higher orders of society, it is, as far as I have been able to observe, wholly unknown. СНАР. Of Imagination. CHAP. II. tion. 65. But to return to the proper subjects of the present inquiry; the art of sculpture is a Of Imagina- much fairer and more impartial representer of beauty of form, than that of painting: for, as it exhibits form only, it can employ no tricks of light and shade to give preternatural distinctness to one part, or preternatural obscurity to another; and, as its imitations are complete, as far as they extend, it can leave nothing to the imagination, nor employ any of that loose and sketchy brilliancy of execution, by which painting gives an artificial appearance of lightness to forms, which, in nature, always appear heavy. 66. The forms, therefore, both of the human figure and countenance, which are peculiarly appropriate to sculpture, are directly the reverse of the picturesque forms above mentioned; this art requiring exact symmetry in limb and body, muscles and joints strongly indicated, regular and distinct features, full lips, prominent brows, and curly elastic hair, more accurately divided into masses, than it ever is by the unassisted. hand of nature. Even the most regular arrangement of it into locks and ringlets has been employed, by the great sculptors of antiquity, with the happiest effect, which it never could be in painting. 67. This character, though very different from any that is commonly esteemed beautiful, has, nevertheless, peculiar beauties for eyes |