embody character called every accessory ornament to their aid, uniting
rich costumes and remarkable attitudes to the attraction of a brilliant
subject, whilst a single Virgin holding a child in her arms, an
attentive old man in the Mass of Bolsena, a man leaning on his stick in
the School of Athens, or Saint Cecilia with her eyes lifted up to
heaven, produced the deepest effect by the expression of the countenance
alone. These natural beauties increase every day more and more in our
estimation; but on the contrary, in pictures done for effect, the first
glance is always the most striking.

Corinne added to these reflections an observation which strengthened
them: which was, that the religious sentiments of the Greeks and Romans,
and the disposition of their minds, being in every respect absolutely
foreign from ours, it is impossible for us to create according to their
conceptions, or to build upon their ground. They may be imitated by dint
of study; but how can genius employ all its energies in a work where
memory and erudition are so necessary? It is not the same with subjects
that belong to our own history and our own religion. Here the painter
himself may be inspired; he may feel what he paints, and paint what he
has seen. Life assists him to imagine life; but in transporting himself
to the regions of antiquity, his invention must be guided by books and
statues. To conclude, Corinne found that pictures from pious subjects,
impart a comfort to the soul that nothing could replace; and that they
suppose a sacred enthusiasm in the artist which blends with genius,
renovates, revives, and can alone support him against the injustice of
man and the bitterness of life.

Oswald received, in some respects, a different impression. In the first
place, he was scandalized to see the Deity represented as he is by
Michael Angelo, in human form and feature. It was his opinion that
thought dare not give Him shape and figure, and that hardly at the very
bottom of the soul could be found an idea sufficiently intellectual,
sufficiently ethereal to elevate it to the Supreme Being; as to subjects
taken from the Holy Scripture, it seemed to him that the expression and
the images left much to be desired. He thought, with Corinne, that
religious meditation is the most intimate sentiment that man can
experience; and in this respect, it is that which furnishes the painter
with the deepest mysteries of physiognomy and expression; but as
religio