conversant with the fine productions of ancient sculpture whence we may reasonably infer, that, had this art been as generally and familiarly understood, and as universally practised, as that of painting, we should probably have heard of a sculpturesque, as well as a picturesque*, since the one exists in nature just as much as the other; and my friend Mr. Price might have found another distinct character to occupy another place in his scale of taste, with those of the sublime, the picturesque and the beautiful. But the imitations of sculpture being less mannered, and more confined than those of painting; its process more slow and laborious; and its materials either costly, ponderous, or cumbersome; the taste for it has never been sufficiently diffused among the mass of mankind to give rise to a familiar metaphor. 68. One particular style of painting has, however, produced such a metaphor, and given We may write either picturesque and sculpturesque, from pictura and sculptura; or pictoresque and sculptoresque, from pictor and sculptor; the first signifying after the manner of the arts, and the latter after the manner of the artists. The latter is most strictly etymological; but as the word pictor has not been adopted into the English language, and the words pictura and sculptura, in an anglicised form, have, the former appears to be the most proper; and, in words not yet naturalized, propriety may be preferred to etymology. CHAP. II. Of Imagina tion. CHAP. II. Of Imagina tion. its name to such descriptions of objects and such modes of composition, as appear to have some similitude to those, from which it sprang. Thus we often hear of grottesque figures, grottesque countenances, and grottesque groupes; which, according to the system of my friend above mentioned, should be such as bear somewhat of the same relation to the picturesque, as he supposes the picturesque to bear to the beautiful for the grottesque is certainly, a degree or two at least, further removed from the insipid smoothness and regularity of beauty, than he supposes the picturesque to be. In tracing, however, the word to its source, we find that grottesque means after the manner of grottos, as picturesque means after the manner of painting. The one is just as much a separate character as the other. 69. Indeed, if my friend will attentively look around him, his sagacity will readily discover many other distinct characters of the same kind, which he may employ, in any future editions of his work, to season the insipidity of beauty to any extent that pleases him; and thus give it such various modes and degrees of relish, as must suit every appetite. A few of these, I shall here point out, as concisely as possible; leaving the task of describing them more accurately, or applying them more systematically, to him, or any other person more competent than myself. 70. Ruined buildings, with fragments of sculptured walls and broken columns, the mouldering remnants of obsolete taste and fallen magnificence, afford pleasure to every learned beholder, imperceptible to the ignorant, and wholly independent of their real beauty, or the pleasing impressions, which they make on the organs of sight; more especially when discovered in countries of ancient celebrity, renowned in history for learning, arts, or empire. The mind is led by the view of them into the most pleasing trains of ideas; and the whole scenery around receives an accessory character; which is commonly called classical; as the ideas, which it excites, associate themselves with those, which the mind. has previously received from the writings called classic. 71. There is another species of scenery, in which every object is wild, abrupt, and fantastic;-in which endless intricacies discover, at every turn, something new and unexpected; so that we are at once amused and surprised, and curiosity is constantly gratified, but never satiated. This sort of scenery we call romantic; not only because it is similar to that usually described in romances, but because it affords the same kind of pleasure, as we feel from the incidents usually related in such of them CHAP. II. Of Imagina tion. СНАР. II. Of Imagination. as are composed with sufficient skill to afford any pleasure at all. 72. In other scenes, we are delighted with neat and comfortable cottages, inhabited by a plain and simple, but not rude or vulgar peasantry; placed amidst cultivated, but not ornamented gardens, meads, and pastures, abounding in flocks and herds, refreshed by bubbling springs, and cooled by overhanging shade. Such scenery we call pastoral; and, though the impressions, which it makes upon the sense, be pleasing; yet this pleasure is greatly enhanced, to a mind conversant with pastoral poetry, by the association of the ideas excited with those previously formed. 73. In the same manner, marts thronged with the bustle of commerce, seaports crowded with shipping, plains enriched by culture and population, all afford pleasures to the learned and contemplative mind, wholly independent of the impressions, which the scenery makes upon the eye; though that, from its richness and variety, may be in the highest degree pleasing. 74. All these extra pleasures are from the minds of the spectators; whose pre-existing trains of ideas are revived, refreshed, and reassociated by new, but correspondent impressions on the organs of sense; and the great fundamental error, which prevails throughout СНАР. II. tion. the otherwise able and elegant Essays on the Picturesque, is seeking for distinctions in ex- Of Imaginaternal objects, which only exist in the modes and habits of viewing and considering them. The author had viewed nature, and examined art with the eye of a painter, the feelings of a poet, and the discernment of a critic: but not having been accustomed to investigate and discriminate the operations of mind, he unfortunately suffered himself to be misled by the brilliant, but absurd and superficial theories of the Inquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. Show either picturesque, classical, romantic or pastoral scenery to a person, whose mind, how well soever organized, is wholly unprovided with correspondent ideas, and it will no otherwise affect him than as beautiful tints, forms, or varieties of light and shadow would, if seen in objects, which had nothing of either of these characters. Novelty will, indeed, make mountainous scenery peculiarly pleasing to the inhabitant of a plain; and richly cultivated scenery, to the inhabitant of a forest; and vice versa; but this is upon another principle which will be hereafter explained. All this, indeed, is admitted; and it is further stated that ugliness itself may be picturesque; and through the power of painting, be gazed on with delight by those, who have been accustomed to be charmed with it in the |