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wrought and chafed. It is a brutal passion, in which the body suffers without the impetuosity being directed by sense. If we observe it in a beast, we shall better recognise it in man. the keeper strikes the tiger or the wolf with his pole, we see excited an instantaneous fire of expression; the eye, the teeth are in a moment exposed, and accompanied with an activity of the frame and a state of preparation which we cannot see unmoved. If the human brute were to strangle helpless age or infancy, it would be with such a rage as this. Lord Kames says, "a stock or a stone by which I am hurt becomes an object of resentment, and I am violently incited to crush it to atoms.” This is purely as the wolf bites the stick which is presented to him. In considering those bursts of passion which lead us to wreak our vengeance upon inanimate objects, Dr. Reid supposes we are possessed with the momentary belief that the object is alive: "there must," he says, "be some momentary notion or conception that the object of our resentment is capable of punishment." I believe the mistake here is, in not having a confirmed notion of the intimate connexion betwixt the emotion in the mind and the exercise of the bodily frame. The body and limbs suffer an agitation as the face does, resulting from the passion; and if a man, half conscious of the phrensy which possesses him, and fearful of being betrayed into an act of cruelty, flings from him the weapon of destruction, it is with the jerk and impetuosity of an outrageous act; whilst his humane sense controls him, it is not capable of arresting that instinctive

agency of the body wrought upon by the passion; just as a man, after long exercise of patience in some work of delicacy or nicety, is at last overcome, dashes the instrument from him, and relieves himself by a burst of impatience and some angry strides.

In rage the features are unsteady, the eyeballs are seen largely; they roll and are inflamed. The front is alternately knit and raised in furrows by the motion of the eyebrows, the nostrils are inflated to the utmost; the lips are swelled, and being drawn, open the corners of the mouth.

The action of the muscles is strongly marked. The whole visage is sometimes pale, sometimes inflated, dark, and almost livid; the words are delivered strongly through the fixed teeth; "the hair is fixed on end like one distracted, and every joint should seem to curse and ban*.”

Tasso thus describes the rage of Argante:

Tacque; e 'l Pagano al sofferir poco uso,
Morde le labbrat, e di furor si strugge.
Risponder vuol, ma 'l suono esce confuso,
Siccome strido d' animal, che rugge:

* La furia, fa gl' atti stolti, et fuor di se; si comme di quelli che si avvolgono ne i moti offensivi, senza riguardo alcuno, rendendosi vehementi in tutti gl' affetti, con bocca aperta, et storta, che par che stridano ringhino urlino et si lamentino, stracciandosi le membra et i panni et facendo altre smanie.-LOMAZZO, lib. II. p. 135.

As it is thought rather a mean expression in the statue of David with his sling, that he bites his lip, so perhaps the poet should avoid an expression which has so little dignity. But why mean? because not true to nature.

If the painter has any imagination and power of delineation, the reading of the whole passage, being the combat of Tancred and Argante, must inspire him with the grandest conception of the sublime ferocity of the human figure in action.

O 'come apre le nubi, ond' egli è chiuso
Impetuoso il fulmine, e sen fugge;
Così pareva a forza ogni suo detto,

Tuonando uscir dall' infiammato petto.
Cant. vi. 38.

But the passion may be much varied in the representation : perhaps the eyes are fixed upon the ground; the countenance pale, troubled, and threatening; the lip trembles, and the breath is suppressed, or there is a deep and long inspiration as of inward pain.

In the following sketch I have endeavoured to represent those feelings which succeed the last horrid act of revenge: the storm has subsided, but the gloom is not yet dissipated. Some compunctious visitings of nature are in the lips, though the eye retains its severity. By the posture and the fixed attention I would indicate, that the survey of the now lifeless body carries back the train of thought with less severe judgment of past transactions.

If I were to set down what ought to be represented as the prevailing character and physiognomy of a madman, I should say, that his body should be strong, and his muscles rigid and distinct ; his skin bound; his features sharp; his eye sunk; his colour a dark brownish yellow, tinctured with sallowness, without one spot

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