Weight of Man, at different Ages. 335 



Greek physiognomies, however admirable in other respects this 

 type may appear to us, if he reproduces it in modern subjects, 

 it will be cold and ineffectual upon the spectator, who will per- 

 haps admire the art and composition, but will not be deeply af- 

 fected. The Greek figures, however varied they may be, on ac- 

 count of age, passion, and sex — have, notwithstanding, all an air 

 of a family, which carries us back towards antiquity, in spite of 

 ourselves, and withdraws our attention from the subject which 

 we would represent. 



" If one endeavours to make them, the anachronism will be- 

 come more sensible. Artists at the commencement have com- 

 prehended this necessity of painting what they had under their 

 eyes, and it is in this way that they have produced effects so ma- 

 gical. The noble and severe figure of Christ has nothing in 

 common with that of Apollo nor of Jupiter of the ancient my- 

 thology. A virgin Mary of Raphael has an enchanting grace 

 which yields to nothing in the most beautiful ancient forms, and 

 they exert on the imagination a greater influence, because they 

 are more conformable to nature by which we are surrounded, 

 and because they act more immediately upon us. We ourselves 

 in climates more remote, perceive the need, in retracing our na- 

 tional actions, not to present Greek or Italian figures in the 

 midst of a battle, in which we find men, almost all of the same 

 age, all alike covered with warlike apparel, our eye seeks to re- 

 cognise, from the features and expression of the physiognomies, 

 the Frenchman or the Englishman, the German or the Russian.' 

 Even in the French army, the soldier of the Old Guard had a 

 physiognomy which had become classic, and which was identi- 

 fied in some measure with the remembrances of the empire. 



" It is certainly to the little attention that has been given to 

 the study of the shades, by which the physical and moral quali- 

 ties of man pass among different nations and in different ages, 

 which gives rise to that monotony and coldness of the greater 

 part of the works of the imagination. We have, indeed, per- 

 ceived the necessity of studying nature, and of being true ; but, 

 I think we have not remarked sufficiently that nature is not in- 

 variable. The ancients have represented, with infinite skill, phy- 

 sical and moral man, such as he existed then ; and the greater 

 number of the moderns, struck with the perfection of their 



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