Now let a
poem, a painting, or sculpture, smell ever so little of antiquity,
and every intelligent reader will be full of delightful imaginations.
2nd.--All things ancient are mysterious in obscurity:--veneration,
wonder, and curiosity are the result. 3rd.--All things ancient are
dead and gone:--we sympathize with them accordingly. All these
effects of antiquity, as a means of enforcing poetry, declare it too
powerful an ally to be readily abandoned by the poet." To all this
the painter will add that the costume of almost any ancient time is
more beautiful than that of the present--added to which it exposes
more of that most beautiful of all objects, the human figure.
{11} Here the author, in the person of respondent, takes occasion to
narrate a real fact.
Thus we have a formidable array of objections to the choice of
_present-day subjects:_ and first, it was objected and granted, that
incidents of the present time are well nigh barren in poetic
attraction for the many. Then it was objected, but not granted, that
their poetic or pictorial counterparts will be equally unattractive
also: but this last remains to be proved. It was said, and is
believed by the author, (and such as doubt it he does not address)
that all good men are more or less poetical in some way or other;
while their poetry shows itself at various times.
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