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87. Dancing is mentioned by Aristotle as an imitative art, whose business was to express the Of Imagina- sentiments and affections of the mind, by the tion. attitudes and gestures of the body, in the most pleasing and intelligible manner *; and this character, it has lately begun to assume again, though probably in a very inferior degree: for the distortions of tumbling still continue to be mixed with the graces of pantomime; and, as they appear difficult, the mass of mankind will probably continue to be pleased with them, for the same reason that they are more pleased with an optical deception, than with a picture of Titian. Every thing that excites wonder pleases; and the plea sure, which it affords, is of a kind that every individual of the human race can relish: but just and natural expression of refined or elevated sentiments can only excite sympathy in those who have felt them.

88. It has been observed by travellers that the attitudes and gestures of savages, particularly those of high rank among them, are extremely dignified and graceful; which arises from their being unperverted and unrestrained, and therefore expressing naturally and emphatically the sentiments of the mind; which, in men who have obtained their rank, as men always do in

* Poetic. s. iii.

the early stages of civil society, by their talents PART II. and courage, will of course be bold and elevated, if not polished and refined.

89. In the fine age of the arts in Greece, civilization had just arrived to that state, in which the manners of men are polished, but yet natural; and consequently their attitudes and gestures expressive and emphatical, without ever being coarse or violent. All the more noble and amiable sentiments of the mind were indicated by the correspondent expressions of the countenance and body; while those of a degrading and unsocial cast were suppressed and concealed: their modes of dress too, having been adapted to display to advantage the natural motions and gestures of the body, and not to constrain, disguise, or conceal them, like those of modern Europe, the artists had constantly before their eyes every possible variety of models in which expressions of grace, elegance, and dignity were displayed in every possible mode and degree. In the gymnastic festivals too, where men of high rank and liberal education entered into contests of personal strength and agility, they had opportunities of seeing these models exhibited, without reserve, not only in every accidental variation of attitude and position, but in every mode and degree of muscular effort and exertion.

P

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PART II. 90. By studying and imitating these, and not CHAP. II. by applying to any abstract rules on predeterOf Imagina- minate lines of grace, elegance, or beauty, the

tion.

great sculptors of Greece appear to me to have produced those masterpieces, which have been the admiration of all subsequent ages and generations of civilized men: for as to lines, I know of none, that may not be graceful, elegant, and beautiful in proper circumstances and situations, and none that are not the reverse when employed improperly. This just application of them, just feeling alone can determine: for those who have attempted to regulate it by system, have only set up system against sentiment; and thus cooperated with the caprices of novelty and fashion in diffusing false taste through the world:-zigzag walks, serpentine canals, spiral columns, broken or scooped pediments, have all sprung from this systematic line of beauty, and, for some periods, triumphed over the common sense and common feelings of mankind.

91. In architecture, indeed, this sacrifice of feeling to system has been less prevalent, than in other arts; which, being less immediately appropriated to the uses of common life, were less under the influence of common sense: for though spiral columns, and scooped pediments were for a time in fashion, it was more with painters than

with architects; and painters, as before observed, PART II. have reasons, peculiarly belonging to their own.

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art, for preferring them. Undulating walls and Of Imaginaserpentine balustrades have no where, that I know of, been in use; nor have I seen or heard of curved roofs on this side of China, except in imitations introduced into this country by a person, who gave equal proofs of the purity of his taste when he censured the temples of Athens, and designed those of Kew.

92. Architecture, indeed, has been rather too cautious and timid, than too bold in its exertions; having never, as my friend Mr. Price has observed, completely emancipated itself from the regular confined lines of the street and the square, which its first ornamental productions were calculated to adorn. In such situations, common congruity required that the whole should be bounded by parallel lines, and that all the subordinate parts should correspond with each other, so that the general mass might be one and entire; and, as the points, from which it could be seen, were limited in their extent and distance, this uniformity could every where be perceived at a glance: but why the same system should be carried into the country, amidst forests, lawns, and mountains, it is not easy to guess. A certain degree of regularity, indeed, such as that very subor

CHAP. II.

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PART II. dinate parts, occupying the same situations, and serving the same purposes, as columns, capitals, Of Imagina. mouldings, &c. should be of the same form, common sense requires; since, in such instances, no reason could be given for deviation: but that the principal parts should all be regular, and correspond with each other, in situations, where all the accompaniments are irregular, and none of them corresponding with each other, seems to me the extreme of absurdity and incongruity.

93. By the old system of laying out ground, indeed, this incongruity was, in a great degree, obviated: for the house being surrounded by gardens, as uniform as itself, and only seen through vistas at right angles, every visible accompaniment was in unison with it; and the systematic regularity of the whole discernible from every point of sight: but when, according to the modern fashion, all around is levelled and thrown open; and the poor square edifice exposed alone, or with the accompaniment only of its regular wings and portico, amidst spacious lawns interspersed with irregular clumps, or masses of wood, and sheets of water, I do not know a more melancholy object: it neither associates nor harmonizes with any thing; and, as the beauties of symmetry, which might appear in its regularity, are only perceived when that regularity is seen;