This
the ancient _Grecian_ Artists would have represented mythologically
in Painting by the GRACES crowning VENUS. We find how much LELY has
availed himself in his shadowy Creations of transcribing from Life
this adventitious Charm into all his Portraits. I mean, when he
_stole_ upon his _animated Canvas_, as POPE poetically expresses it,
"The sleepy Eye that spoke the melting Soul."
You will ask me, perhaps, how I can prove any Alliance in this
particular Circumstance of a single Feature to Truth; Or rather
triumphantly push the Argument farther, and say, Is not this
additional Charm, as you call it, inconsistent with the Divine
Original of Beauty, since it deadens the fiery Lustre of that
penetrating Organ? I chuse to draw my Answer from the Schools of the
antient ETHOGRAPHI, who by their enchanting Art so happily conveyed,
thro' the Sight, the Lessons of Moral Philosophy. These Sages would
have told you, that our Souls are attuned to one another, like the
Strings of musical Instruments, and that the Chord of one being
struck, the _Unison_ of another, tho' untouched, will vibrate to it.
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