that of their activity; and there- But, in the third place, the means fore, according to the prevalence which the painter's art affords him of certain paffions or mental ener- are adequate to the reprefentation gies, they become unalterably fa- of any material or mechanical form. fhioned to an expreffion tending to. If he delineates a huge and rugged convey the notion of this preva- rock, or a fimple and delicate flower, lence, i. e. tending to point out by the dextrous applicationof lightthe individual character; with how er or darker tints, he can reprefent, little accuracy we have already with the most minute accuracy, the fhewn. But this is pure mechan- rough and pointed furface of the one ifm; a mere representation of lines as well as the foft and undulating fuand angles, prominences and de- perficies of the other. The botanift, preffions and the mechanical va- from habitual affociation, may conriations of lights and fhades, fur- ceive that the lurid phyfionomics of rows and elevations, with the va- fome plants convey an expreflion of rious direction of lines in curves, poifonous qualities; but what should angles, and amorphous figures, are prevent the painter from giving an its only means of reprefenting accurate delineation of the flower the internal agency of the mind: of henbane, although he were tothe mechanical arrangement and tally ignorant of the nature of its pofition of the mufcular organs narcotic properties? Or would the and integuments of the face are its knowledge of these properties tend only mode of expreffion. The coun- to add correctnefs to his mechanitenance has no myfterious connex- cal reprefentation of the form, and ion with the mental energy: that fuperficies, and colour of the flower? requires the ftudy of the abftrufe If not (and no one, I prefume, will doctrines of metaphyfics, or the maintain the affirmative), we may poffeffion of congenial energies, in confidently affert, that, in delineorder to comprehend it. The con- ating a human face, the painter's nexion exifts in the mind of the hand will not be guided at all to fpectator alone, and was acquired accuracy of reprefentation by the by habitual affociation of the me- moft perfect knowledge of the mind chanical fculpture of the exterior, of the perfon whom he pourtrays; with the mental operation of the and that, in order to enfure correctinternal being, exercifed from the nefs in the likenefs, it is no more earliest infancy. The phyfiogno- neceffary for him to poffefs congemilt ftudies, by more accurate nial qualities, than to be able to comparisons of the internal quali- fmell partridges in a ftubble, ties with the external variations of in order to paint the portrait the lines and fuperficies of the coun- of a pointer in the act of fetting. tenance, to correct the vague aflo- The delineation is, in, both in-. ciations of cafual experience, and ftances, equally a mechanical copy to establish by induction more cer- of a form, and fuperficies equally tain and invariable principles. So mechanical. far, then, as a painter is a phyfiognomift, that is, fo far as he ftudies to give expreffion to the faces which he draws, it is only with the obfervation of lines and furfaces that he is concerned; and lines and furfaces are only mechanical forms or properties.

It is evident that the portrait of a face, as of a flower, may be painted with the minutest accuracy, in which a true reprefentation fhall be given of the contour of the whole and of the individual features; marking all the angles, prominences, and depreflions, by the feientific

application of light and fhade; and combining with the whole a corre&t and appropriate tint, varying in the different parts refpectively and strictly, as in the original. A portrait, if thus delineated with undeviating faithfulness in all mechanical points, must be a correct likeness, and muft carry with it the identical expreffion which characterizes the original; fubject, how to this difadvantage, that a face, incapable of motion in its parts, must be deftitute of that acuteness of expreffion which is attached to one alive to all the variations of active fenfibility, or in which the little changes of lines, and angles, and furrows, are conftantly trimming, as it were, the lamp of intelligence that sparkles in an expreffive coun

tenance.

power; and to affirm that none but a madman can delineate the features of madness, and that idiotism, as we have no abfolutely natural artists, can never be represented on the canvafs: thefe are the inevitable inferences, if a perfon cannot conceive the nature of qualities which he does not poffefs; if, by obfervation of the mechanical figns of human and brute feelings, he cannot produce their refemblances, and therefore produce alfo the expreffion of the qualities fignified; if facial expreffion is not a mere affociation of experience, and capable of being reduced to general principles by induction, and applied, heightened, or diminished, according to thefe principles, by the fkill of the artift; and if all the artift's labour do not confift in copying accurately the mechanical medium of affociation from nature, or delineating it according to the general principles he has acquired from obfervation, in order to exprefs examples of imaginary character in various conditions and fituations of life. The very fact, therefore, that we have excellent historical paintings, expreffive of every poffible modification of character, in its highest energy and loweft imbecility, is a proof in itself of the truth of the affirmative of our queftion---that a painter can give to the faces he delineates any expreffion whatever, whether of qualities of his own mind, or qualities more eminently great, and more contemptibly trivial, than any which enter into the conftitution of his character.

The indefcribable ftrength of this expreffion in the vifage, in many inftances, has probably excited the doubts which gave rife to our queftion. In its moderate force it is fufficient often to make us forget that it arifes folely from the mechanical ftructure and motions of the face, and we are apt to fancy that we fee the very rays of the understanding beaming from the countenance, which is merely the lanthorn, the medium of conveyance. This has been fufficiently refuted already. It is refuted by the very tendency and defign of the fcience of phyfiognomy. And if we attempt to purfue the notion, that a painter can only delineate qualities which he poffeffes in his own mind, to its utmost confequences, we fhall find that the argumentum ad abfurdum will afford an additional and no lefs fatisfactory refutation. For whither would the notion lead us? To deny the poffibility of paint- "Whether has the progress of fciing the Cæfars and the Newtons of the ence been more conducive to the perworld; to forfwear all attempts at fection of useful and elegant manuhiftorical or poetical painting as an factures, or the improvement of maabfurdity; to pronounce the de-nufactures more effectual in promotlineation of animal or brute charac- ing the advantage of Science ?" ters and paffions beyond the artist's

QUESTION to be difcuffed in the enfuing Number.