ESSAY Vi. 
Upon ExpreJiGUi or Character, In Painting, STc 
REGULAR proportions, fymmetry, and ele 
gance, are not the only requifites to form a per-* 
fe£t figure. 
Without a juft leading feature, that chara£ferizes 
the fubjeft reprefented on ftone or canvas, neither 
the fineft colours of a painting, nor the perfect har- 
mony of a ftatue, will meet with the approbation 
of real judges. 
Expreflion, then,, is the foul of both ; the lively 
and ftriking image ot animated affeftions, that 
breaks out, betraying every inward emotion, in 
ftrong chara6fers, ftamped upon the countenance, 
and communicated by that fwell and relaxation ot 
the mufcles by which the fecrets of the heart 
tranfpire, more or lefs, according to the lineaments 
and decree of conftitutional vigour. 
Even the reviewers of paintings fliould be forced 
to fhare the impreftions fo reprefented in a mafter- 
piece, after a magical invention that few profeffors 
communicate cheerfully to their pupils. 
It is, therefore, indifpenfable for the artift to ftudy 
man in a moral point of view ; to lift into the inmof 
D 4 recelfe* 
