LXXVIII. Different persons have different limits to their capacity. Thus, some excel in one profession generally, such as acting; others in one department of it, as tragedy; others in one character only. Garrick was equally great in tragedy and comedy; Mrs. Siddons only shone in tragedy; Russell could play nothing but Jerry Sneak.[[21]]
LXXIX. Comic actors have generally attempted tragedy first, and have a hankering after it to the last. It was the case with Weston, Shuter, Munden, Bannister, and even Liston. Prodigious! The mistake may perhaps be traced to the imposing eclat of tragedy, and the awe produced by the utter incapacity of such persons to know what to make of it.
LXXX. If we are not first, we may as well be last in any pursuit. To be worst is some kind of distinction, and implies, by the rule of contrary, that we ought to excel in some opposite quality. Thus, if any one has scarcely the use of his limbs, we may conceive it is from his having exercised his mind too much. We suppose that an awkward boy at school is a good scholar. So, if a man has a strong body, we compliment him with a weak mind, and vice versâ.
LXXXI. There is a natural principle of antithesis in the human mind. We seldom grant one excellence but we hasten to make up for it by a contrary defect, to keep the balance of criticism even. Thus we say, Titian was a great colourist, but did not know how to draw. The first is true: the last is a mere presumption from the first, like alternate rhyme and reason; or a compromise with the weakness of human nature, which soon tires of praise.
LXXXII. There is some reason for this cautious distribution of merit; for it is not necessary for one man to possess more than one quality in the highest perfection, since no one possesses all, and we are in the end forced to collect the idea of perfection in art from a number of different specimens. It is quite sufficient for any one person to do any one thing better than everybody else. Anything beyond this is like an impertinence. It was not necessary for Hogarth to paint his Sigismunda; nor for Mrs. Siddons to abridge Paradise Lost.
LXXXIII. On the stage none but originals can be counted as anything. The rest are ‘men of no mark or likelihood.’ They give us back the same impression we had before, and make it worse instead of better.
LXXXIV. It was ridiculous to set up Mr Kean as a rival to Mr Kemble. Whatever merits the first might have, they were of a totally different class, and could not possibly interfere with, much less injure those of his great predecessor. Mr Kemble stood on his own ground, and he stood high on it. Yet there certainly was a reaction in this case. Many persons saw no defect in Mr Kemble till Mr Kean came, and then finding themselves mistaken in the abstract idea of perfection they had indulged in, were ready to give up their opinion altogether. When a man is a great favourite with the public, they incline by a natural spirit of exaggeration and love of the marvellous, to heap all sorts of perfections upon him, and when they find by another’s excelling him in some one thing that this is not the case, they are disposed to strip their former idol, and leave him ‘bare to weather.’ Nothing is more unjust or capricious than public opinion.
LXXXV. The public have neither shame nor gratitude.
LXXXVI. Public opinion is the mixed result of the intellect of the community acting upon general feeling.
LXXXVII. Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do. There is one thing in particular they are always disposed to give us, and which we are as unwilling to take, namely, advice.