but very seldom is it strictly applicable to the beautiful in nature. Cicero wrote thus concerning the idea of the perfect orator. "We behold," he says, "the form of eloquence in our minds, the actual image of which we seek to realize in the organ of hearing." 1 The old Italian painters, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael,2 Guido, all speak of an idea of human beauty, far superior to anything they had ever seen really existing, and which they strove to seize and embody in colors. But it is seldom or never that we hear men speak of the idea of a beautiful day, or country, or even of a beautiful animal. The word seems to be restricted in a great measure, within this particular province of art, to man; and to human or divine qualities and characteristics, which are capable of being expressed only in the form, or in the actions, of the human being. If anything of the ideal character is given, as it must be confessed that it sometimes is, to inferior beings, this end is to be attained only by investing them, either in the mode of representing them, or in our own imagination, with some partial expression of attributes which are strictly peculiar to humanity. 1 Cic., Orator, c. iii. 2 Letter to Count Baldassare Castiglione. 9 Letter to Massano, quoted in Dryden's Parallel of Poetry and Painting. CHAPTER VI. SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. INTERESTS AWAKENED IN CONNECTION WITH THE BEAUTIFUL. X IT is evident that the idea of man, if by this is to be understood the idea of his whole essence, as made for immortality, and capable of an indefinite progression in all intellectual, moral, and spiritual excellence, it is evident that this idea of man cannot be adequately represented by any of the arts of design, in any form of surface or color addressed to sense. Yet man's form is, in some sort, the expression of his inner nature; his body is inseparable from him here, and is not to be long separated from him hereafter. We may distinguish the normal idea of man, as the highest type of physical organization and conformation to be found on this earth, and as, in the highest degree, and in all respects, suited to the physical existence of a free, rational being; and the rational idea of him, which cannot be adequately represented under any form of sense, but which is capable of being suggested, of being indicated, by the whole play of expression in the muscles of the body and features of the countenance, particularly in that wonderful organ, the eye, which has been called the seat of the soul; in a word, in all the ways which man has of showing what is in him. The normal idea is the human frame conceived at the point of completeness and perfection, considered as the type of all form possessing significance, expressive of meaning; and as reconciling, at once, the utmost diversity of parts, with symmetry of proportions, and unity of purpose. In man, matter is completely subdued to the expression of spirit. This ideal of the human frame reveals, even in repose, the presence of a power of self-control; of concentrating energy at any one point, whether in look, in posture, or in action; of expressing by the slightest changes in the relation of parts the moods of the indwelling soul which vitalizes every part alike. It is this idea which the painter and the sculptor keep constantly before the imagination, not losing sight of it even when purposely departing from it; since the infinite diversities and adaptations of the same common form must ever have reference to the fundamental type of that form. The rational or spiritual idea, on the other hand, has reference to man's end, as a being in himself free, and so accountable and immortal, as well as animal and sentient : and therefore capable of goodness and capable of crime; capable of great and noble affections, as well as of the meanest passions; of an entire self-sacrifice, or of an entire |