400 
art. We might, perhaps, imagine a 
young Hercules ileeping and infolded by 
ferpents ; and the artift might lead us to 
guels by his figure, and the tranquillity 
of his fleep, what might be expeéted 
from him when awake. 
Let us go further, and let us imagine 
the father and‘his fons feelmg themielves 
interlaced by ferpents; in whatever man- 
ner this may be, we fhail fee that there 
is only a fingle moment in which the in- 
tere(t is the greateit: it is that in which 
a body is fo infolded that it can ‘ho lon- 
ger defend itfelf; in which the fecond, 
although yet in a condition to defend it- 
felf, is neverthelefs wounded ; and in 
which the third has, laftly, tome hope 
of faving itfelf. The youngeft fon is in 
the firf{ ftate, the father in the fccond, 
the eldeft fon in the third. Let us en- 
deavour to find yet another ftate; let us 
try to diftribute the parts differently trom 
what they are here ! 
In refleting then on this action, from. 
its commencement, and finding that it 
has arrived to its higheft degree, we shall 
foon perceive, by reprefenting to our- 
felves the moments which are to follow 
‘that which is figured by the monument, 
that the groupe muft entirely change, and 
that we cannot find another moment of 
the aétion which is fo precicus for the 
art. The youngeft fon will be ftifled by 
the ferpent that infolds him ; or if, in his 
firuation, which deprives him of all fuc- 
cour, he irritates it further, the ferpent 
will bite him. Thefe two fiates are in- 
fupportable, becaufe they are extremes 
which ought not to be reprefented. As 
to the father, the ferpent may bite him a- 
gain in other parts; but then all the fitua- 
tion of his body would be changed, and 
the firft bites would be loft tor the fpecta- 
tor, orthey would become difguiting, ifthe 
artitt had a mind to indicate them. There 
is yet another cafe: the ferpent may turn 
away, and attack the eldeit fon ; this lait 
is then brought back to himfelf; there is 
no longer any perfonage intereiting him- 
felf in the aétion; the laft appearance of 
hope difappears from the groupe, and the 
reprefentation is no longer tragical, but 
cruel, The father, who repoies now 
upon himielf, in his greatneis and his 
fufferings, would turn round towards his 
fon, and he would become an acceflory 
figure, interefting himfelt with another 
figure. 
In his own fufferings, and thofe of an- 
other, man has only three fenfations, fear, 
terror, and compathon; he forefees with 
_adaguietude the evil which approaches him; 
Obfervations on the Laocoon. 
[ June 
he perceives on a fudden an evil which 
ftrikes him, and he takes part in the fuf- 
fering which yet remains, or which has 
already pafled ; all the three are reprefent- 
ed and excited by this monument, and 
even by the moft fuitable gradation, 
The arts of defign, which always la. 
bour for the moments when they chufe a 
pathetic fubjeét, will feize that which ex- 
cites terror; poetry, on the contrary, 
will chufe thofe which excite fear and 
compaffian. In the groupe of Laocoon, 
the fufferings of the tather excite terror 
to the highelt degree; fculpture has done 
in it all that it could do; but, either for 
the fake of running through the circle of 
all human fenfations, or of moderating 
the violent impreffion of terror, it excites 
compafiion for the fituation of the young- 
eft fon, and fear for that of the eldeft; 
leaving yet fome hope for this laft. It is 
thus that the ancients gave, by variety, 
a certain equilibrium to their works ; 
that they diminifhed or ftrengthened an 
effect by other effets, and were enabled 
to finifh an intellectual and fenfible whole. 
In a word, we may boldly maintain, 
that this monument exhaufts its fubject, 
and that it happily executes all the con- 
ditions of the art. It teaches us, that if 
the artift can communicate his fentiment 
of the beautiful to tranquil and fimple 
objects ; this fame fentiment fhews itfelf 
neverthelefs, in its greateft energy and 
all its dignity, when it preves its force 
by figuring varied charaéters; and when 
in its imitation, it can moderate and re- 
tain the violent and impaffioned expref- 
fions of human nature. 
The moderns have often been miftaken 
in the choice of fubje&ts for pathetic re- 
prefentations in feulpture. Mulo, whofe 
two hands are locked in the rift of a tree, 
and who is attacked by a lion, is a fub- 
je&t which the artift will endeavour in 
vain to reprefent in fuch a manner as to 
excite-a pure and true intere&. A double 
grief, unavailing efforts, afituation which 
deprives him of all relief, can only ex- 
cite horror, and cannot even touch. m 
Lafily, I thall drop a word or two on 
the relation of this fubject to poetry. 
We are unjuft towards Virgil and 
poetry, when we compare, be it only for 
an inftant, the moft finifhed chef d’ceuvre 
of feulpture, with the epifodical manner 
in which this fubject is treated in the 
Encid. As the unfortunate Aineas is to 
relate himfelf, that he and his com- 
patriots have committed the unpardon-~ 
able fault of {uffering the horfe to enter 
their city, the poet has only to contrive, 
> means 
