the rapid changes in which the real expression of passion consists, it
should not attempt its delineation at all. Its real object is, the
expression of _emotion_, of that more settled state of the human mind
when the changes of passion are gone--when the countenance is moulded
into the expression of permanent feeling, and the existence of this
feeling is marked by the permanent expression which the features have
assumed.

The greatest artists of ancient and modern times, accordingly, have
selected, even in the representation of violent exertion, that moment of
temporary repose, when a permanent expression is given to the figure.
Even the Laocoon is not in the state of actual exertion: it is
represented in that moment when the last effort has been made; when
straining against an invincible power has given to the figure the aspect
at last of momentary repose; and when despair has placed its settled
mark on the expression of the countenance. The Fighting Gladiator is not
represented in a state of actual activity, but in that moment when he is
preparing his mind for the future and final contest, and when, in this
deep concentration of his powers, the pause which the genius of the
artist has given, expresses more distinctly to the eye of the spectator
the determined character of the combatant, than all that the struggle or
agony of the combat itself could afterwards display.

The Grecian statues which were assembled in the Louvre may be considered
as the most perfect works of human genius; and after surveying the
different schools of painting which it contains, we could not but feel
those higher conceptions of human form, and of human nature, which the
taste of ancient statuary had formed. It is not in the moment of action
that it has represented man, but in the moment after action, when the
tumult of passion has ceased, and all that is great or dignified in
moral nature remains; and the greatest works of modern art are those
which approach nearest to the same principle. It is not Hercules in the
moment of earthly combat, when every muscle was swollen with the
strength he was exerting, that they represent; but Hercules in the
moment of transformation into a nobler being, when the exertion of
mortality has passed, and his powers seem to repose in the tranquillity
of Heaven: not Apollo, when straining his youthful strength in drawing
the bow; but Apollo, when the weapon was discharged, watching, with
unexulting eye, its res