Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/332

 3i8 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

of ideas Is, O-^e has always the fame dref?, the other changes when you plciife. I'he one is varied, the other is not.

The fame Florus, in fpeaking of the Samnites, fays, •' Their towns " were deilroyed, that it is at this fion facile apparent materia quatuor et njiginti triumphorum. And by the fame words that mark the de- liruclion of that people, he lets us fee the greatnefs of their courage and their hrmnefs.
 * « day difficult to find thefuhjedlof
 * four-and-twcnty triumphs." Ut

Oae of the things which pleafcs us moft, is the fimple, but it is alfo the moft difHcuit ftyie, becaufe it is precifely beiv/etn tiic noble and the ri/eao ; and is fo near the mean, that it is very difficult to keep always on the brink of it without fometimes falling into it.

The muficians have owned, that the m'lfic which is eafielc fung is moft difficult to compofe : a fure proof that our pleafures, and the art which gives them, lie between certain boundaries.

When a thing is fhewn us with certain circumftances or acceft'aries which aggrandize it, it appears noble to us. This is more parti- cularly obfervable in comparifons, where the mind fhouid always gain and never lofe ; for the comparifon ihould always add fomething, to fhew it in more grandeur ; or, if it is not grandeur that is required, more fine or more delicate.

When a thing is to be ihevvn fine, the foul would rather fee a manner compared with a manner; an ac- tion with an adion ; than a thing with a thing ; as an hero to a lion, a woman to a ftar, a nimble man to a ftag.

Michael .A.ngelois themafterwho has thrown fomething noble into

ail his fubjefts. In his famous Bac- chus, he has not, like the Flemilli painters, fticwn a tottering figure, and which is as it were in the air; that would be unworthy the majeity of a god : he paints him firm on his legs : but he fo happily gives him the gaiety of drunkennefs, and fuch a joy in feeing the liquor run that he pours into his cup, that there is nothing fo admirable.

In the Paffion, that is in the gallery at Florence, he has paint- ed the Virgin ftanding, who looks up6n her crucified Son, v/ithout grief, without pity, without regret, without tears. He fuppofes her in- llruifted in the great myft'.ry, and thereby makes her fuppcrr with grandeur the fight of that death.

Julio Romano, in his chamber of giants at Mantua, where he repre- fents Jupiter throwing down his thunder on them, lets us fee all the gods affrighted ; but juno is near Jupiter; with an alTured air fhe points out to him a giant, againft whom he ought to launch his thun- der ; by this he gives her an air of grandeur, that the other gods have not. The nearer they are to Jupi- ter, the more nfljr^d they are ; and that is very natural, for in a battle, the fear ceafes near him who has the advantage.

After this g:niral theory of Tajic-, an application of forne of the mcf fr iking rules y in the pradice of one cf the mnft agreeable of all arts, that of laying cut gardens, ivill not prove difagrceable to the reader. It ivill not he the lefs agreeable, that the obferva- tions are dra-xvn from a country, ivhich ivhile it is fo remote from us inftuation, manners, and cujtzms, prefer'ves fo jirong a conformity