It is one thing to make an idea clear, and another to make it affecting to the imagination. If I make a drawing of a palace, or a temple, or a landscape, I present a very clear idea of those objects; but then (allowing for the effect of imitation which is something) my picture can at most affect only as the palace, temple, or landscape, would have affected1 in the reality. On the other hand, the most lively and spirited verbal description I can give raises a very obscure and imperfect idea of such objects; but then it is in my power to raise a stronger emotion by the description than I could do by the best painting. This experience constantly evinces. The proper manner of conveying the affections of the mind from one to another is by words; there is a great insufficiency in all other methods of communication; and so far is a clearness of imagery from being absolutely necessary to an influence upon the passions, that they may be considerably2 operated upon, without presenting any image at all, by certain sounds adapted to that purpose; of which we have a sufficient proof in the acknowledged and powerful effects of instrumental music. In reality, a great clearness helps but little towards affecting the passions, as it is in some sort an enemy to all enthusiasms whatsoever3.
Section [IV].
The same subject continued.
There are two verses in Horace’s Art of Poetry that seem to contradict this opinion; for which reason I shall take a little more pains in clearing it up. The verses are,
Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures,
Quam qu? sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.
On this the Abbé du Bos founds a criticism, wherein he gives painting the preference to poetry in the article of moving the passions; principally on account of the greater clearness of the ideas it represents. I believe this excellent judge was led into this mistake (if it be a mistake) by his system; to which he found it more conformable than I imagine it will be found to experience. I know several who admire and love painting, and yet who regard the objects of their admiration4 in that art with coolness enough in comparison of that warmth with which they are animated5 by affecting pieces of poetry or rhetoric6. Among the common sort of people, I never could perceive that painting had much influence on their passions. It is true that the best sorts of painting, as well as the best sorts of poetry, are not much understood in that sphere. But it is most certain that their passions are very strongly roused by a fanatic7 preacher, or by the ballads8 of Chevy Chase, or the Children in the Wood, and by other little popular poems and tales that are current in that rank of life. I do not know of any paintings, bad or good, that produce the same effect. So that poetry, with all its obscurity, has a more general, as well as a more powerful dominion9 over the passions, than the other art. And I think there are reasons in nature, why the obscure idea, when properly conveyed, should be more affecting than the clear. It is our ignorance of things that causes all our admiration, and chiefly excites our passions. Knowledge and acquaintance make the most striking causes affect but little. It is thus with the vulgar; and all men are as the vulgar in what they do not understand. The ideas of eternity10, and infinity11, are among the most affecting we have: and yet perhaps there is nothing of which we really understand so little, as of infinity and eternity. We do not anywhere meet a more sublime12 description than this justly-celebrated one of Milton, wherein he gives the portrait of Satan with a dignity so suitable to the subject:
“He above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent13
Stood like a tower; his form had yet not lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared
Less than archangel ruined, and th’ excess
Of glory obscured: as when the sun new risen
Looks through the horizontal misty14 air
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon
In dim eclipse disastrous15 twilight16 sheds
On half the nations; and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs17.”
Here is a very noble picture; and in what does this poetical18 picture consist? In images of a tower, an archangel, the sun rising through mists, or in an eclipse, the ruin of monarchs and the revolutions of kingdoms. The mind is hurried out of itself, by a crowd of great and confused images; which affect because they are crowded and confused. For separate them, and you lose much of the greatness; and join them, and you infallibly lose the clearness. The images raised by poetry are always of this obscure kind; though in general the effects of poetry are by no means to be attributed to the images it raises; which point we shall examine more at large hereafter.5 But painting, when we have allowed for the pleasure of imitation, can only affect simply by the images it presents; and even in painting, a judicious19 obscurity in some things contributes to the effect of the picture; because the images in painting are exactly similar to those in nature; and in nature, dark, confused, uncertain images have a greater power on the fancy to form the grander passions, than those have which are more clear and determinate. But where and when this observation may be applied20 to practice, and how far it shall be extended, will be better deduced from the nature of the subject, and from the occasion, than from any rules that can be given.
I am sensible that this idea has met with opposition21, and is likely still to be rejected by several. But let it be considered that hardly anything can strike the mind with its greatness, which does not make some sort of approach towards infinity; which nothing can do whilst we are able to perceive its bounds; but to see an object distinctly, and to perceive its bounds, is one and the same thing. A clear idea is therefore another name for a little idea. There is a passage in the book of Job amazingly sublime, and this sublimity22 is principally due to the terrible uncertainty23 of the thing described: In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof; an image was before mine eyes; there was silence; and I heard a voice — Shall mortal man be more just than God? We are first prepared with the utmost solemnity for the vision; we are first terrified, before we are let even into the obscure cause of our emotion: but when this grand cause of terror makes its appearance, what is it? Is it not wrapt up in the shades of its own incomprehensible darkness, more awful, more striking, more terrible, than the liveliest description, than the clearest painting, could possibly represent it? When painters have attempted to give us clear representations of these very fanciful and terrible ideas, they have, I think, almost always failed; insomuch that I have been at a loss, in all the pictures I have seen of hell, to determine whether the painter did not intend something ludicrous. Several painters have handled a subject of this kind, with a view of assembling as many horrid24 phantoms25 as their imagination could suggest; but all the designs I have chanced to meet of the temptations of St. Anthony were rather a sort of odd, wild grotesques26, than any thing capable of producing a serious passion. In all these subjects poetry is very happy. Its apparitions27, its chimeras28, its harpies, its allegorical figures, are grand and affecting; and though Virgil’s Fame and Homer’s Discord29 are obscure, they are magnificent figures. These figures in painting would be clear enough, but I fear they might become ridiculous.
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1
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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2
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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3
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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4
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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5
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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6
rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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7
fanatic
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| n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的 | |
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8
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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9
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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10
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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11
infinity
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| n.无限，无穷，大量 | |
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12
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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13
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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14
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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15
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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16
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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17
monarchs
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| 君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 ) | |
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18
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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19
judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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20
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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21
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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22
sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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23
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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24
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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25
phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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26
grotesques
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| n.衣着、打扮、五官等古怪，不协调的样子( grotesque的名词复数 ) | |
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27
apparitions
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| n.特异景象( apparition的名词复数 )；幽灵；鬼；（特异景象等的）出现 | |
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28
chimeras
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| n.（由几种动物的各部分构成的）假想的怪兽( chimera的名词复数 )；不可能实现的想法；幻想；妄想 | |
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29
discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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