The dying Adonis, the rape of Europa, are a series of pictures in which stationary and movable pictures are interchanged. MENDELSSOHN. i 'Poetry may very well paint bodies, but it must not overleap the following boundaries. If we desire clearly to represent to ourselves a whole contained in space, then we consider-1. the individual parts; 2. their connection; 3. the whole. Our senses accomplish this with such wonderful speed that we believe we perform all these operations at the same time. If, however, all the separate parts of an object contained in space were indicated to us by arbitrary signs, then the third operation, the putting together all the parts, is a work of great difficulty. We are obliged to strain our powers of imagination if we strive to put together such separated parts into a space-filling whole.' MENDELSSOHN. k The poet seeks to bind together for ever Action and Movement; therefore he seldom tarries long on any moment of time. Inasmuch as a more manifold variety is at his command, he does not willingly confine himself to a less. Therefore he avoids stationary actions wherever he can change them into movable. The following well-chosen examples are perfectly adapted to this theory, but they do not show an entire exclusion of all stationary actions.' MENDELSSOHN. 1 Iliad, E 365: 'She mounted, and her waggoness was she that paints the air; The horse she reined, and with a scourge importuned their repair, That of themselves out-flew the wind, and quickly they ascend Olympus, high seat of the gods.' CHAPMAN. m Anthol. lib. i. :— Either at the starting ropes or at the goal; at either end Visible; but never in the course between.' n Iliad, E 770: And how far at a view R. P. A man into the purple sea may from a hill descry So far a high-neighing horse of heaven at every jump would fly.' CHAPMAN. R. P. o P. 7. p Canto i. st. 14. a Odyss. ▲ 50. r Iliad, Y 226 :— These twice six colts had pace so swift, they ran Upon the top-ayles of corn-ears, nor bent them any whit ; And when the broad back of the sea their pleasure was to sit, The superficies of his waves they slid upon, their hoves Not dipped in dank sweat of his brows.' CHAPMAN. R. P. 'Illa vel intactae segetis per summa volaret Outstripped the winds in speed upon the plain, A a She swept the seas, and, as she skimmed along, 'Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies oër the unbending corn and skims along the main.' s De gressu Deorum v. Comment. in Virgil v. lib. 1. Aeneid: et vera incessu patuit Dea-et Woverius, cap. 1. de Umbra. t Aristot. de Incessu Animantium et Erasmi Adagia, p. 660, edit. Francof. 1646. u L. ii. p. 143, ed. Wesseling. The only art which makes use of visible signs arbitrary and successive would be the language of the dumb. y King Lear, act iv. sc. v. z Von der Mahlerey, p. 169. aa Richardson, i. p. 84. bb Francis Floris was born at Antwerp in 1520; he died in 1570. His works were at one time held in great esteem. Jerome Cock, or Kock, was a painter and engraver at Antwerp; he died about 1570. R. P. cc Aristoteles Probl. sect. x. according to the emendation of Vossius ad Pompon. Melam. lib. iii. c. 8. p. 587. dd Iliad, T 373, etc.: 'And as from sea sailors discern a harmful fire, let run By herdsmen's faults, till all their stall flies up in wrastling flame, Which being on hills is seen far off, but being alone, none came To give it quench; at shore no neighbours, and at sea their friends Driven off with tempests; such a fire from his bright shield extends His ominous radiance; and in heaven impressed his fervent blaze.' CHAPMAN. R. P. ee InWinkelmann's Geschichte der Kunst.' ff Plin. lib. xxxiv. cap. 7, gg L. xxxiv. hh L. xxxiv. ii Nachrichten von den neuesten Herculanischen Entdeckungen, s. 35. kk This section is not to be found in the papers of Herr Friedland. 11 -and all the coast in prospect lay. Down he descended straight: the speed of Gods FINIS. Par. Lost, x. |