Alexandria daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1803-1808, 1805-08-16


she knows, andremains surprlzed to see a
mass at once so vast and so light.
.4Cfhe 5eauries which result from a certain
embarrassment at the soul.
The soul is often surprized from not be.
B rq able to reconcile what she now sees,
with what she has seen. There is great
lake in Italy called Lago Maggiore. II is
little sea, whose shores shew nothlng
but what is entirely savage. Fifteen miles
within the lake are two isles of quarter
of mile round, called the Barromes,
which, in my opinion, is OF all the world
the spot the most delightful ; the soul IS as
tonished in the romantic contrast, from
pleasing recollection of the wonders OF Ro-
mana, where having passed by rocks and
dry country, you find yourself in fairy
land. Contrasts always strike us, because
the two things always heighten one ano-
Their.
These sorts of surprises make the plea.
sure that is found in all oppositlons, 10 all
antitheses, ard such like figures. When
Florus says, s Sora & Agidum who
would believe it had been formidable to
us Saticula and Corniculum were once
provinces. We blush for the Borilians
and Vlrulani, but we triumphed over them.
In short. Thur our suburb, Preneste
where our houses of pleasure are, were
once the objects of the vows we made
at the capitol" This author, say,
shews us at once the grandeur of the Ro-
mans, and the littieness of their beginnings
and these two things here raise our won
der.
It may be here remarked, how wide the
difference is between the antithesis OF l.
IDEAS, and the an,ithesis OF expressions
The antithe.is of expression is never
concealed that of ideas is. One has
always the same dress, the other changes
when you please. The one is varied, the
other is not.
The same Florus, in speaking of the
Samnites, says, " Their towns were de-
ST owed. that it is at this dav difficult to End
the subject of four and twenty triumPhs."
1T non taciLe abpareaf materia q1otuor ct
viginti triumbh0rum. And by the same
words that mark the destruction of that
people, he lets US see the greatness OF their
courage and their hrmness.
One of the things which pleases US most,
is the simple, but it is also the most diff
cult style, because it is precisely between
the noble and the mean and is SO near the
mean that it is very difficult TO keep al.
wavs o. the brink Off without sometimes
falliog into it.
The musicians have owned, that the
music which is easiest sung is most diff
cult to compose sure proof that our
pleasures, and the art which gives them,
lie between certain boundaries.
When thlng IS thcwn US with certain cir
cumRances or sccsAares which aggrandize it, il |
ap, ssrs noble TO Us. This is more particularly |
obtcrvabIe in companions, where the mind fhou!d |
always gain and never lofc I; for the ccmpariion |
ihouid always add fcrething, to thew II in more
grandeur, if il is not grandeur that is required,
more fine or more dcllcax.
When a thing IS to be hewn fire. the ful |
would ralher fec manner compared with man
nee; an action with an aaion than thing (
with thing; as an hero "a lion, woman 10 |
itar, nimole man 10 fax.
Michael Angelo is The mater who has thrown /
lonething noble INTO all his iubjcsts. In hi. ia.
nous Bacchus, he has not, like the fiemilh !
painters ihewn lettering figure, and winch Is,
at il were, in the air that would be unworthy
the majtfty of a god he paints HIN finn on his
legs: bu, he 70 happily gives him the. gaety Of
Drunkenness, and fuch joy in feeing the liquor
ron that he pours into his emp, that the;e is no.
tSn 70 admirable.
Ia the palson, that is in The gallery az Flo
renee, he has painted the Virgin ttanding, MO,
looks upon her crucifcd Son, without grief, wish
out pity, witnaut regret, without tears. He |,
luPpaies her inftruaed III the great myGery, and
thereby makes her (upPort win grandeur the hgas
o that death.
Julio Romano, in his chamber of giants at
Mantua, where he repIelents Jupiter throwing