MOTION OF THE FEATURES OF A PORTRAIT. ]21 



well-known fact, that when the eyes of a portrait 

 look at a spectator in front of it they will follow 

 him, and appear to look at him in every other 

 direction. This curious fact, which has received 

 less consideration than it merits, has been often 



Fig. 27. 



skilfully employed by the novelist, in alarming 

 the fears or exciting the courage of his hero. On 

 returning to the hall of his ancestors, his atten- 

 tion is powerfully fixed on the grim portraits 

 which surround him. The parts which they have 

 respectively performed in the family history rise 

 to his mind : his own actions, whether good or 

 evil, are called up in contrast, and as the preserver 

 or the destroyer of his line, he stands, as it were, 

 in judgment before them. His imagination, thus 

 excited by conflicting feelings, transfers a sort of 

 vitality to the canvas, and if the personages do 



