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ralytic. Under thefe embarraflments, what
traits fhall exprefs the dignity of fentiment,
the perfuafive energy, the eloquent pathos of
that infpired apoftle?

Profane History affords innumerable
inftances of diverfity of character. The he-
roic Alexander, the effeminate Darius, the
fublime Plato, muft not refemble each other,
independent of likenefs to their portraits,
Casfar muft be diftincT: from Nero, and Trajan
from Caligula.

Poetry prefents an inexhauftible fund of
fubjecr.s for the exertions of defign: and as
art enjoys the greateft liberty when engaged
upon them, becaufe creatures of fancy, fo it is
expected that a fertile imagination and a fkil-.
ful hand fhould embody, as it were, the ideas
of the poet, and prefent to the eye the fimiln
tudes of deities or heroes, of nymphs or {yU
vans, with freedom and vigor: but, if imagi-
nation fhould run riot, and attempt to exprefs
the fubjects treated without ftricr. attention to
character, what an heterogeneous mixture
would it produce ! " Confufion worfe confounded"
would be its proper motto.

It is no new obfervation, that the genius
neceffary to poetry and painting is greatly
fimilar, of which this article is a ftriking in-
ftance: for unlefs both poet and painter care-
fully