[ 9- ] 



If then the above maxim be inconlrovertible, as I ihink it is, 

 we have only to enquire whether in fad the countenance ever 

 expreffes a mixture of emotions ? While the foul is affeded by 

 any pafllon, if it be alTaiied by another of a different or dif- 

 cordant nature, the former will either give way or contend for 

 predominance. In the firft cafe there will be a moment of 

 fluduation, during which the expreflion will be uncertain ; 

 that of the former not being totally effaced, nor the other yet 

 exclufively afcendant. Thus the lover in Lucretius viewing his 

 miflrefs in vullu vlJet vejligia r'ljus. This tranfient interval rc- 

 fembles thofe points of time fo happily feized by Ovid in the 

 Metamorphofes before the entire recefs of the firft form or con- 

 fummation of the new one. Though the painter's art, con- 

 fined to a fingle inflant, could not delineate the rapid train of 

 pafTions, -which dimmd the face of Satan on the view of Eden, 

 and thrice changd -with pale ire, envy and defpair, yet were he 

 even to feled the moment, when his griev'd look he Jixed fad. 

 Hill it muft be Satanic fadnefs, tinged with deep malice and, re- 

 venge. I could almofl conceive, that as the fculptor in the 

 ftationofa ftatue can imply its being in adual motion, fo the 

 magick of the painter can fuggefl to us how tranfient the emo- 

 tion expreffed is intended to be. — If the firft impreffed paffion 

 be firm enough to contend for fuperiority with that fuperinduccd, 

 does not experience prove that the features wear a form very 

 different from that which either pafTion fingle would produce ? 

 Does not the expreffion participate of the charader of each ? Is 

 there no difference, but in degree, between the afped of a man 



oppreffed 



