s of inexcusable carelessness."
Here we think this writer has missed the key of explanation. The very
picture is the history of the progress of mind, through science and
philosophy, to the acknowledgment of an immortal being. The very subject
amalgamates, in one moral idea, times, epochs, localities. It treats of
that which passes over time, and embodies only its results. Mr Fuseli
notices not these anachronisms, but says aptly of the picture--"What was
the surmise of the eye and wish of hearts, is gradually made the result
of reason, in the characters of the school of Athens, by the researches
of philosophy, which, from bodies to mind, from corporeal harmony to
moral fitness, and from the duties of society, ascends to the doctrine
of God and hopes of immortality." The very entertaining author whom we
have quoted above, we must here, somewhat out of place, observe, has,
with Mr Fuseli, mistaken the character of Hogarth's works. He
says--"Hogarth has painted comedy!" and what is very strange, he seems
to rank him as a comedian with "Pope, Young and Crabbe"--the last, the
most tragic in his pathos of any writer. The invention in the Cartoons
comes next under Mr Fuseli's observation. "In whatever light we consider
their invention, as parts of _one whole_, relative to each other, or
independent _each of the rest_, and as single subjects, there can be
scarcely named a beauty or a mystery, of which the Cartoons furnish not
an instance or a clue; _they are poised between perspicuity and
pregnancy of moment_." We believe we understand the latter sentence; it
is, however, somewhat affected, and does not rightly balance the
_perspicuity_. We must go back, however, to a passage preceding the
remarks on the Cartoons; because we wish, above all things, to vindicate
the purest of painters from charges of licentiousness. He sees in Cupid
and Psyche a voluptuous history: this may or may not be so--we think it
is far from being such; but when he adds, "the voluptuous history of his
(Raffaelle's) own _favourite passion_," he is following a prejudice, an
unfounded story--one which we think, too, has in no slight degree
influenced his general criticism and estimation of Raffaelle. We would
refer the reader to "Passavant's Life of Raffaelle," where he will see
this subject investigated, and the tale refuted. It is surprising, but
good men affect to speak of amorous passion as if it were a crime; by
itself it may disgust, but surely coldness i