62 Mr. George Simonds, on Sculpture, &c. [Marcli 3, 



petitions being calculated to produce the worst results. A committee 

 of one — who knows what he wants and applies to a capable artist for 

 it — will always be the most satisfactory. 



The lecturer then spoke of the wholesale destruction of monu- 

 mental statues that had taken place at various dates and in different 

 countries, as, notably, in France, in 1792, and of the motives that 

 induced man to erect and to destroy monuments ; and endeavoured 

 to point out that although no monument is so effective as a sculptural 

 one, yet it is by no means proved that a full-sized portrait in bronze 

 of a man and his clothes is the most satisfactory form ; and that 

 matters might often be improved by confining the portrait to a bust 

 or a medallion, and allowing allegorical sculpture to complete the 

 story. 



Various celebrated equestrian monuments were further shown in 

 illustration, and the lecturer concluded by quoting the words of 

 Professor Tyndall on the power exerted by a noble monumental work 

 over the imagination, it being, he said, "capable of exciting a motive 

 force within the mind which no purely material influence could 

 generate." 



[G. S.] 



