The artists repository and drawing magazine: exhibiting the principles of the polite arts in their various branches (1.1787)

LECTURE VI.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
'Hp'HE principles of expression muft be
drawn from the operations of nature^
and nature alone; no reafonings a priori can
avail us here, or difcover wherefore one part
of the perfon is more affected by certain fen-
fations of the mind than another, or why that
part is not differently affected from what it is.
That the various exertions of the body are
really the effects of mental emotion is indu-
bitable, though we are ignorant of the
manner in which that emotion acts, or by what
fecret fprings thefe inert compofitions of clay
are impelled by the energy of a fpiritual
agent: but that they are lb impelled is uni-
verfally admitted.

However various the opinions or apprehen-
fions of mankind may be On certain fubjects,
yet on others they are perfectly correfpondent
and fimilar; afenfe of the fame wants, the fame
weakneffes, the fame defires, obtains among
all men, when thofe wants, weakneffes, and
defires are natural; by which fympathy man-
kind acknowledge their mutual relation : and
this acknowledgement would be ftill more

S. explicit