it is in the undefined feeling to which it gives rise, that the
delight of the emotion of taste consists. Like the harmony of sounds in
musical composition, it produces an effect of which we are unable to
give an account; but which we feel to be instantly destroyed by the
jarring sound of a different note, or the discordant effect of a foreign
expression. It is in the neglect of this great principle that the defect
of many of the first pictures of modern times is to be found--in the
confused multitude of unnecessary figures--in the contradictory
expression of separate parts--in the distracting brilliancy of gorgeous
colours; in the laboured display, in short, of the power of the artist,
and the utter dereliction of the object of the art. The great secret, on
the other hand, of the beauty of the most exquisite specimens of modern
art, lies in the simplicity of expression which they bear, in their
production of one uniform emotion, from all the parts of one harmonious
composition. For the production of this unity of emotion, the surest
means will be found to consist in the selection of _as few figures_ as
is consistent with the developement of the characteristic expression of
the composition; and it is, perhaps, to this circumstance, that we are
to impute the unequalled charm which belongs to the pictures of single
figures, or small groups, in which a single expression is alone
attempted.

4. The last principle of the art appeared to be, that both painting and
sculpture are wholly unfit for the representation of PASSION, as
expressed by motion; and that, to attempt to delineate it, necessarily
injures the effect of the composition. Neither, it is clear, can express
actual motion: they should not attempt, therefore, to represent those
passions of the mind which motion alone is adequate to express. The
attempt to delineate violent passion, accordingly, uniformly produces a
painful or a ridiculous effect; it does not even convey any conception
of the passion itself, because its character is not known by the
expression of any single moment, but by the rapid changes which result
from the perturbed state into which the mind is thrown. It is hence that
passion seems so ridiculous when seen at a distance, or without the
cause of its existence being known, and it is hence, that if a human
figure were petrified in any of the stages of passion, it would have so
painful or insane an appearance.--As painting, therefore, cannot exhibit