m 



" Need I now explain/' interrupted Mr. 

 Hamilton, " why an object peculiarly and 

 strikingly ugly, is picturesque ? Were this 

 figure, just as you saw him, to be ex- 

 pressed by a painter with exactness and 

 spirit, should you not be struck with it, 

 as you were just now in nature, and from 

 the same reasons ? What indeed is the ob*» 

 ject of an artist, in whatever art? Not 

 merely to represent: the soft, the elegant, 

 or the dignified and majestic ; his point is 

 to fix the attention ; if he cannot by gran- 

 deur or beauty, he will try to do it by de- 

 formity : and indeed, according to Eras- 

 jnus, " quae naturd deformia sunt, plus 

 " habent et artis et voluptatis in tabular" 

 It is not ugliness, it is insipidity, however 

 accompanied, that the painter avoids, and 

 with reason ; for if it even deprives beauty 

 of its attractions, what must it do when 

 united to ugliness ? Do you recollect a 

 person who passed by us, a little before 

 you saw this figure that struck you so 

 much? you must remember the circum- 

 stance, for he bowed to me as he passed, 



VOL. III. U 



