Note 4 — THE NOVELIST.
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Footnote 4
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(return)
It is singular, but almost true to an axiom, that objects capable of exciting disgust in their reality, confer delight in their pictorial representation; the interior of some wretched hovel, a sty and its inmates, and a boorish revel, will exemplify this. Our pleasure in that case arises perhaps not from the objects represented, but from the truth of the representation. I know not that this paradox has ever been solved, and therefore with diffidence offer, that we are rather pleased with the artist than his subject.