kind of hieroglyphic character was more frequent in that art; as it is
much wanted to render historic pictures both more intelligible, and more
sublime; and why should not painting as well as poetry express itself in
metaphor, or in indistinct allegory? A truly great modern painter lately
endeavoured to enlarge the sphere of pictorial language, by putting a
demon behind the pillow of a wicked man on his death bed. Which
unfortunately for the scientific part of painting, the cold criticism of
the present day has depreciated; and thus barred perhaps the only road
to the further improvement in this science.]


"YOU crowd in coated jars the denser fire,
360 Pierce the thin glass, and fuse the blazing wire;
Or dart the red flash through the circling band
Of youths and timorous damsels, hand in hand.
--Starts the quick Ether through the fibre-trains
Of dancing arteries, and of tingling veins,
365 Goads each fine nerve, with new sensation thrill'd,
Bends the reluctant limbs with power unwill'd;
Palsy's cold hands the fierce concussion own,
And Life clings trembling on her tottering throne.--
So from dark clouds the playful lightning springs,
370 Rives the firm oak, or prints the Fairy-rings.


[_With new sensation thrill'd_. l. 365. There is probably a system of
nerves in animal bodies for the purpose of perceiving heat; since the
degree of this fluid is so necessary to health that we become presently
injured either by its access or defect; and because almost every part of
our bodies is supplied with branches from different pairs of nerves,