STUDY X. 313 



painted chariots with four horfes, that the wheels 

 appeared to be turning round. In the curious 

 lift which he has tranfmitted to us of the moft ce- 

 lebrated pictures of antiquity, and ftill viewed 

 with admiration at Rome, in his time, he particu- 

 larly mentions one which reprefented women fpin- 

 ning wool, whofe fpindles feemed ad:ually to whirl. 

 Another was held in high eftimation *, *' in which 

 '^ were reprefented two light-armed foldiers, the 

 ** one of whom is fo heated with running in bat- 

 " tie, that you fee him fweat, and the other, who 

 " is laying down his arms, appears fo exhaufted, 

 " that you imagine you hear him panting." I 

 have feen, in many modern pidures, machines in 

 motion, wreftlers and warriors in aflion, but in no 

 one of them did I ever find attention paid to thefe 

 effeds fo fimple, and fo expreflive of the truth of 

 Nature. Our painters confider them as petty de- 

 tails, beneath the notice of a man of genius. Ne- 

 verchelefs thefe petty details are traits of cha- 

 radter. 



Marcus AureliuSi who pofTeiTed fully as much 

 genius as any modern whatever, has very judici- 

 oufly obferved, that, in many cafes, it is on fuch 

 minutenefles the attention fixes, and from the 

 contemplation of thefe the mind derives the moft 



* /"/.«y's Natural Hiftory. Bookxxxvii. chap. 10 and 11. 



pleafure. 



