Addison.
Voltaire.
Byron.
Shelley.
RAFFAELLE.
It will be perceived that this list (which, like all the others, might be very much extended) contains the names of poets and artists of the highest beauty and elegance, though not of the most intense and deepest thought. Beauty is their highest excellence, their chief praise. Exquisite melody, ætherial fancies, felicitous expression, a fine perception of the Beautiful, as distinguished from the Sublime, whether on paper or canvass, (for it is only the difference in the mécanique, or vehicle of expression, which constitutes the difference between the Artist and the Poet), are their best attributes. Addison and Voltaire are the only two of the above instances who never excelled in Poetry or Art, though both assiduously courted the former Muse. Nevertheless Addison is an illustrious instance in our behalf. Is not the beauty, the correctness, the euphony of his style still an object of emulation? Has it not for above a century been the model of good writing? And yet it is too true that nothing equally permanent can be found, which is at the same time so weak and tame in thought, so shallow in reasoning, or so lax in argument. In fact, it owes all its permanency to its euphony, its musical harmony and exactness of expression.
ADDISON.
The absence of a noticeable development of the Cogitative (Class III.) accounts for the deficiency of higher qualities in these disciples of the Beautiful. For this reason the Greek nose is more interesting in its compound form, Sub-class II
III the “Greco-Cogitative,” than in its simple form.