220 



give delight to every spectator, to the 

 painter no less than all others, and will, by 

 all, without hesitation, be called beautiful* : 

 if this be true, yet still no distinction of 

 character be allowed to exist — what is it, 

 then, which does create a distinction be- 

 tween any two characters? That I shall 

 now wish to examine; and as the right of 

 the picturesque to a character of its own 

 is called in question, I shall do what is 

 very usual in similar cases, inquire into the 

 right of other characters, whose distinction 

 has hitherto been unquestioned: not for 

 the sake of disputing their right, but of 

 establishing that of the picturesque, by 

 shewing on how much stronger and broader 

 foundations it has been built. 



Envy, and Revenge, are by all acknow- 

 ledged to be distinct characters ; nay 

 both of them, as well as many of our 

 better affections, have been so often per- 

 sonified by poets, and imbodied by pain- 

 ters and sculptors, that we have as little 

 doubt of their distinct figurative exist- 



* Letter to Mr. Repton, page [37. 



