Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/327

 MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 313

one another; the foul retains no- thing, forefees nothing ; (he is humbled by the confufion of her ideas, by the inanity that is left upon her; fhe is fatigued to no purpofe, and can tafte no pleafure. For this reafon, except when the defign is to exprefs or fhew con- fufion, they always put an order even in confufion itfelf. Thus the painters groupe their figures. Thus thofe who paint baiil. "^j place the thing which the eye is todiltinguifh, in the front, and throw the con- fufion in the bottom and deepen- ings of their pidures.

Ofthepleafures thai variety ginjes.

But if order is neceflary, {o alfo is variety. Without this the foul languilhes. For things that are alike, feem to her to be the fame. And if one part of a piflure was difcovered to us, refembling an- other which we had feen, that cb- jeft would be new without feeming fo, and would give no pleafure: and as the beauties of the works of art, which referable thofe of na- ture, confift only in the pleafures that they raife in us; ihey muil be made, as much as polfible, capable of varying thefe pleafures. The foul muft be (hewn things (he has not feen ; (he muft have fentiments impre(red on her di(Ferent from thofe ihe had before.

It is thus that hiftory pleafes us from the variety of its accounts; romance, from the variety of its prodigies ; theatrical pieces, from the variety of paflions that they caufe; and 'tis from hence that thofe who know how to inflruft us modify, as much as they can, the uniform tone of inftruftion.

A long uniformity makes every thing infupportable J the fame

order of periods long continued, v.'earies in an harangue. The fame number and the fame cadences tires one in a long poem. If it is true, that a long alley is made from Mofcow to Peterfburgh, the traveller muft be tired to death, (hut up between the two fides of that alley. And he v/ho (hould live for any time in the Alps, would come down difgufted with the hap- p'eft fituations,and the moft charm- ing profpecls.

The loul love? variety; but we have faid (he loves it only as fhe is made for knowledge and difcoverv. She muft then fee ; and variety muft not prevent her feeing; that is, a thing muft be fimple enough to be (een, and have variety enough to be feen with pleafure.

Some things (eem to have great variety, and have it not; and fome feem uniform, and have great va- riety.

The Gothic architedlure feems to have great variety ; bu t the con- fufion of its ornaments fatigues by their litdenefs ; which makes it impo(fible to diftingui(h anyone from the reft; and their number is fo great that it is impo(fible for the eye to re(t on any of them. So that it difpleafes through the very means that were chofen to make it agreeable.

A Gothic building is a kind of asnigma to the eye; and the foul is embarrafled, as when (he is pre- fented with an obfcure poem.

The Grecian architefture, on the

contrary, feems uniform ; but as

it has the divifions that are necef^

fary, and as many as are nece(rary

to let the foul fee clearly fo much

as (he can without fatigue, and yet

enough to employ her, (he has that

variety which makes her look on it

with pleafure.

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