THE EXPRESSION OF THE PASSIONS. 



493 



Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, 

 And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been ; 

 To climb the trackless mountain all unseen, 

 With the wild flock that never needs a fold ; 

 Alone o'er steeps and foaming- falls to lean ; 

 This is not solitude ; 'tis but to hold 

 Converse with Nature's charms, and see her stores unroli'd.* 



But let this tranquillity be broken in upon by any of the agreeable pas- 

 sions, and still something of the same softness and pliancy of feature will 

 remain ; and the changes will be neither numerous nor powerful. This 

 remark may be strikingly verified by turning to Le Brun ; and still more 

 so by turning to other French pathematists, who have still further subdi- 

 vided the passions. In admiration and agreeable surprise, there is a 

 slight muscular agitation ; and a gentle advance to stretching or tense- 

 ness in simple attention, veneration, and elevated revery ; but there is no 

 constraint. The whole is calm, placid, and void of exertion. Rapture 

 and laughter make a somewhat nearer approach to the former qualities, 

 and especially the low broad grin of the Dutch painters ; but the muscles, 

 though stretched, are still flexible and at ease. In eager desire we ap- 

 proximate more closely the tension of the violent and repulsive passions : 

 but eager desire is a compound emotion ; it is desire with uneasiness, and 

 consequently borders upon pain, if it do not enter its boundary. 



Hence the attractive affections are far more easy to be expressed by 

 the painter than by the poet, and fall immediately within the range of 

 classical sculpture, which limits itself to the calm and the dignified, and 

 has rarely been known to wander into the regions of intensity, distortion, 

 or violence. 



The poet, incapable of catching those transient lights and shades, that 

 unutterable play of feature into feature, by which the passions of this class 

 are chiefly distinguished frojn each other, is compelled to have recourse 

 to collateral iimagery, complex personification, or allegorical accompani- 

 ments. To this remark it will be difficult to find an exception in any 

 writer. Let us take Collins as an example, who is one of the best and 

 boldest of our lyric bards. His description of Hope, in his celebrated 

 Ode to the Passions, is exquisitely fine, but, after all, somewhat indefinite ; 

 the whole of its figure being that of a beautiful nymph, with fair eyes, an 

 enchanting smile, and wavy golden hair, accompanied with a lyre or some 

 other instrument, for we are not told what, which she strikes to a song of 

 future or prospective pleasure, amidst the echo of surrounding and respon- 

 sive rocks, and woods, and valleys. 



But thou, O Hope, with eyes so fair, 



What was thy delighted measure 7 



Still it whisper'd promised pleasure. 

 And bade the lovely scenes nt distance hail. 

 Still would her touch the strain prolong, 



And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, 

 She call'd on Echo still through all the song. 



And where her sweetest theme she chose, 



A soft responsive voice was heard at every close, 

 And Hope enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair. 



The portrait is graceful, elegant, and animated ; but I may venture to 

 say, that the only real expression of the character of Hope is derived, not 



* Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto ii. 



