THIRD LECTURE.

1 44

The judicious obfervation of all this does not reducethe hiftoric painter to the anxioufly minute detail of acopyift. Firm he refts on the true bafis of art, imita-tion : the fixed character of things determines all inhis choice, and mere floating accident, tranfient modesand whims of fafliion, are ftill excluded. If defects,if deformities are reprefented, they muft be permanent,they muft be inherent in the character. Edward the firftand Richard the third muft be marked, but marked, toftrengthen rather than to diminifh the intereft we takein the man; thus the deformity of Richard, will add tohis terrour, and the enormous ftride of Edward, to hisdignity. If my limits permitted, your own recollec-tion would difpenfe me from expatiating in examples onthis more familiar branch of invention. The hiftory ofour own times and of our own country has produced afpecimen, in the death of a military hero, as excellentas often imitated, which, though refpedt forbids me toname it, cannot, I truft, be abfent from your mind.

Such are the ftridter outlines of general and fpecific in-vention in the three principal branches of our art; butas their near alliance allows not always a ftriT diferimi-nation of their limits; as the mind and fancy of men,upon the whole, confift of mixed qualities, we feldom2 meet