DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0048
38 history of art. [lECT. i.
But not to trace further the subjects of history, or
the principles of poetry, let us now consider those
more immediate and personal services, for which we
are daily beholden to the imitative Arts.
It is natural to desire the constant company of
friends whom we value, or relations whom we love ;
but as human enjoyments admit not of stability, the
dearest friends must part : such is one condition of
life. It is true, and it is pleasant to reflect, that the
faithful heart shall long enjoy the grateful pleasure
of recollected love; the retentive memory shall
dwell with delight on past intercourse, but the re-
tentive memory, and the faithful heart, very readilv
acknowledge their obligation to the arts of Design :
DO O
the features, the manner, the air, the very person,
is present in an animated portrait: for this enjov-
ment we are entirely beholden to the Arts.
If there be, as undoubtedly there is, no small
pleasure arising from the substituted presence of
those whom we love, this advantage, though it may
be somewhat weakened, yet is greatly extended,
when we advert to the number of persons of whom
we desire some memorial. Let us consider, that,
after those most dear to us, our own families, our
own friends, we are gratified by portraits of those
eminent persons around us for whom we have con-
ceived esteem j the wise, the learned, the good,
the illustrious; and by portraits also of those whose
misfortunes have interested us ; of those too who are
not natives of our own country, but foreigners,
whose celebrity has disposed us in their favour : ex-
tend this idea to the famous characters of antiquity,
and
But not to trace further the subjects of history, or
the principles of poetry, let us now consider those
more immediate and personal services, for which we
are daily beholden to the imitative Arts.
It is natural to desire the constant company of
friends whom we value, or relations whom we love ;
but as human enjoyments admit not of stability, the
dearest friends must part : such is one condition of
life. It is true, and it is pleasant to reflect, that the
faithful heart shall long enjoy the grateful pleasure
of recollected love; the retentive memory shall
dwell with delight on past intercourse, but the re-
tentive memory, and the faithful heart, very readilv
acknowledge their obligation to the arts of Design :
DO O
the features, the manner, the air, the very person,
is present in an animated portrait: for this enjov-
ment we are entirely beholden to the Arts.
If there be, as undoubtedly there is, no small
pleasure arising from the substituted presence of
those whom we love, this advantage, though it may
be somewhat weakened, yet is greatly extended,
when we advert to the number of persons of whom
we desire some memorial. Let us consider, that,
after those most dear to us, our own families, our
own friends, we are gratified by portraits of those
eminent persons around us for whom we have con-
ceived esteem j the wise, the learned, the good,
the illustrious; and by portraits also of those whose
misfortunes have interested us ; of those too who are
not natives of our own country, but foreigners,
whose celebrity has disposed us in their favour : ex-
tend this idea to the famous characters of antiquity,
and