elegant observer of beauty, down to the illiterate ruftic, who, as Horace humourously expreffes it, ftares, contento poplite, at the daubings of the art, and is tranfported with the magick of a charcoal pencil, A. DIALOGUE IV. 4. W Of DESIGN. E are told by Pliny, that all the ftatues before the time of Dædalus, were represented stiff and motionless; with winking eyes, clofed feet, and arms hanging in right lines to their fides [c]: Thefe were the rude effays of design, - [c] Conniventibus oculis, pedibus junctis, brachiis in latera demiffis, ftatu rigido. The Egyptians continued to the laft, even when they were mafters of a perfect defign, to reprefent their deities in the manner above described: We cannot fuppofe that this was owing to an ignorance of the advantages of a graceful action, but rather to their bigotted attachment to certain theological ideas. The motion they afcribed to their divinities, was neither that of walking nor flying; Milton, who has adopted their idea, defcribes it precifely in the following lines, So faying, by the band be toak me, rais'd, And over fields and waters, as in air SMOOTH SLIDING WITHOUT STEP, last led me up woody mountain. D 4 Dædalus Dædalus, and his immediate followers, unfolded these embaraffed figures; they threw motion into the limbs, and life into the countenance. In the progress of the art, and in abler hands, motion was fashioned into grace, and life was heightened into character. Now, too, it was, that beauty of form was no longer confined to mere imitation, which always falls fhort of the object imitated; to make the copy equal in its effect, it was neceffary to give it fome advantage over its model. The artist, therefore, obferving, that nature was fparing of her perfections, and that her efforts were limited to parts, availed himself of The Greeks who borrowed their religion, as they did their arts, from the Egyptians, followed for fome time this mode of reprefentation; till at length, (which was, perhaps, the era Pliny mentions) their averfion to every thing that was ungraceful, overcame their prejudices; and this might have been a principal reason, that in the end they fo far excelled their mas ters. her her inequality, [d] and drawing these fcattered beauties into a more happy and compleat union, rofe from an imperfect imitative, to a perfect ideal beauty. We are informed, that the painters of Greece preffed in crowds to defign the bofom and breafts of Thais: Nor were the elegant proportions of Phryne lefs the object of their study. By this conftant contemplation of the beautiful, they enriched their imagination and confirmed their tafte; from this fund they drew their fyftems of beauty; and though we fhould confider them but as imitators as to the parts, we must allow them to have been inventors in the [4] Ονπερ τρόπον, και τοις τα αγαλμαία τελος διαπλατε τεσιν, δι παν το παρ εκάςε καλον συναγαγοντες. και κατα την τέχνην εκ διαφορων σωμαίων αθροισαντες εις μιμησιν μιαν, καλλος ἐν ὑγιες και αρτιον και ήρμοσμένον αυτο αυτῳ εξειργα σανο Και εκ αν εύροις σωμα ακριβες καλα αληθειαν αγαλμαλι όμοιον Ορεγονται γαρ αἱ τεχναι το καλλίς8. Max. Tyr. Differt. xxiii. ed. Lond. compofitions: compofitions. And indeed, when we reflect on the taste and judgment requifite to form these various ideas into fuch a wonderful agreement, we cannot fet too high a value on their productions. The poets and writers of antiquity acknowledge this fuperiority of invented to real beauty. OVID thus defcribes Cyllarus the Centaur, [e] A juft proportion, and a manly grace, Spread thro' his limbs, and kindled in his face. And Philoftratus, fpeaking of the beauty of Neoptolemus, remarks, that it was as much inferior to that of his father Achilles, as the handsomest men are to the finest ftatues. [e] Gratus in ore vigor: cervix, humerique, manufque, Pectoraque artificum laudatis proxima fignis, Metam. lib. xii. Exqua parte vir eft. Should |