Exquisite picture!--let me not be told
Of minor faults, of coloring tame and cold--
If thus to conjure up a face so fair,[2]
So full of sorrow; with the story there
Of all that woman suffers when the stay
Her trusting heart hath leaned on falls away--
If thus to touch the bosom's tenderest spring,
By calling into life such eyes as bring
Back to our sad remembrance some of those
We've smiled and wept with in their joys and woes,
Thus filling them with tears, like tears we've known,
Till all the pictured grief becomes our own--
If _this_ be deemed the victory of Art--
If thus by pen or pencil to lay bare
The deep, fresh, living fountains of the heart
Before all eyes be Genius--it is _there_!
[1] The extension of the Divine Love ultimately even to the
regions of the damned.
[2] It is probable that this fine head is a portrait, as we find
it repeated in a picture by Guercino, which is in the possession of Signor
Carnuccini, the brother of the celebrated painter at Rome.
EXTRACT V.
Padua.
_Fancy and Reality.--Rain-drops and Lakes.--Plan of a Story.--Where to
place the Scene of it.--In some unknown Region.--Psalmanazar's Imposture
with respect to the Island of Formosa_.
The more I've viewed this world the more I've found,
That, filled as 'tis with scenes and creatures rare.
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