diseases, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer,« as
ourselves. The tenor, therefore, of their affections and feelings, must have
borne the same general proportion to our own.
    It follows, therefore, that of the materials, which an author has to use in
a romance, or fictitious composition, such as I have ventured to attempt, he
will find that a great proportion, both of language and manners, is as proper to
the present time as to those in which he has laid his time of action. The
freedom of choice which this allows him, is therefore much greater, and the
difficulty of his task much more diminished, than at first appears. To take an
illustration from a sister art, the antiquarian details may be said to represent
the peculiar features of a landscape under delineation of the pencil. His feudal
tower must arise in due majesty; the figures which he introduces must have the
costume and character of their age; the piece must represent the peculiar
features of the scene which he has chosen for his subject, with all its
appropriate elevation of rock, or precipitate descent of cataract. His general
colouring, too, must be copied from nature: The sky must be clouded or serene,
according to the climate, and the general tints must be those which prevail in a
natural landscape. So far the painter is bound down by the rules of his art, to
a precise imitation of the features of nature; but it is not required that he
should descend to copy all her more minute features, or represent with absolute
exactness the very herbs, flowers, and trees, with which the spot is decorated.
These, as well as all the more minute points of light and shadow, are attributes
proper to scenery in general, natural to each situation, and subject to the
artist's disposal, as his taste or pleasure may dictate.
    It is true, that this license is confined in either case within legitimate
bounds. The painter must introduce no ornament inconsistent with the climate or
country of his landscape; he must not plant cypress trees upon Inch-Merrin, or
Scotch firs among the ruins of Persepolis; and the author lies under a
corresponding restraint. However far he may venture in a more full detail of
passions and feelings, than is to be found in the ancient compositions which he
imitates, he must introduce nothing inconsistent with the manners of the age;
his knights, squires, grooms, and yeomen, may be more fully drawn than in the
hard, dry delineations of an ancient illuminated manuscript, but the character
and costume of the