ON CERTAIN INCONSIDERATE CRITICISMS. 247 



If his lofty genius had been reined in and curbed with the 

 bridle of frigid and mistaken criticism, he would not have dared 

 a flight beyond " this visible diurnal sphere." There can be little 

 doubt but his fiery spirit would have been tamed down to the dull 

 jog-trot of an ordinary play-wright. 



I have, in these remarks, endeavoured, to the best of my humble 

 abilities, to answer an objection which is so frequently urged, with- 

 out just consideration, against almost every British historical or 

 poetical picture ; and I hope I have satisfied the readers that the 

 charge of incongruities in the Installation is groundless. The sanc- 

 tion of Greece and Rome, in their purest ages — of RafFaelle and 

 Rubens — of Reynolds, Dr. Johnson (in the last quotation respecting 

 Shakspeare), and Sir Walter Scott, fully prove there is a noble 

 congruity or fitness in the arts founded in general nature, in accord 

 with religious propriety and the spirit of the time ; but far more 

 elevated and comprehensive than the conventional congruity (so ne- 

 cessary and commendable in its proper place) or decorum of the 

 social classes, at the present day. The former, according to the 

 precept of Shakspeare, tempers its divine heat with method and 

 judgment. It is that sublime fervour which, on great and noble 

 occasions, enkindles 



" Thoughts that breathe and words that burn," 

 and 



" Snatches a grace beyond the rules of art ;" 



that is, beyond the mere formal rules of pedantic criticism, which, 

 by injudiciously enforcing what Sir Joshua Reynolds has so aptly 

 termed " a punctilio of reason," out of place and unseasonably, ope- 

 rates, it is to be feared, too frequently, like the film of a cataract on 



" The painter's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling," 



and dims, or extinguishes, its power of vision. Each of these con- 

 gruities has its distinct province and separate license. The one ap- 

 plies to INIichael Angelo, Rafiaelle, and the grand style of historical 

 and poetical painting — the other, to Teniers, Wilkie, Mulready, 



