In vain will the study of history, of mythology, or of a purer
religion enrich his imagination, and present him with subjects for
his art, if science and philosophy do not join, to enable him to give
a representation true to nature. If Ananias is to be represented
dying convulsed, let it be according to the unerring principles of
our nature. The evening on which I sketched this figure from
recollection, I had, in the course of the day, seen three men in succession,
die in this state, with an exact resemblance in every twist
and contortion of the frame; nor should I have caught the expression
unless I had observed that all the muscular frame was affected,
and that the most powerful flexor muscles dragged their opponents.
Men in this condition are insensible to present objects, and their
mutterings prove them to have the idea still prevailing in their
minds of opposing the enemy*.
* These are painful subjects to present to the reader. It may be a relief to his
mind to know, that when there is this terrible excess of expression, there is, notwithstanding,
insensibility to pain. One young gentleman, on recovering from the convulsions
caused by a gun-shot fracture of the skull, declared that he was insensible to
suffering, and the struggles, which to his companions in arms appeared so appalling,
were to him merely the exertions which he thought necessary to preserve his balance
on a soft bed, upon which he imagined himself to be stretched and carried high in air.
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I i i F e a r there are several degrees. In s im p l e b o d i l y p e a r
there is mere animal expression, great meanness, and almost total
absence of mind and energy. Mr. Burke, in his speculations on
fear, assimilates it, with perhaps too little discrimination, to pain.
“ A man in great pain,” he observes, “ has his teeth set; his eyebrows
are violently contracted; his forehead is wrinkled; his eyes
are dragged inwards, and rolled with great vehemence; his hair