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bered, that these great men, prior to the time of their being 

 thus employed, had not shown how much they could do, or 

 to what extent their noble daring could be carried. It was 

 employment which called them forth, which gave new life and 

 energy to their genius, and created a lasting monument of 

 their country's greatness ; and while the renowned names of 

 Greece and Rome are mere matters of historical record, these 

 alone remain to mark their splendour, their beauty is un- 

 tarnished by the rude hand of time, and are an enduring 

 and undying witness of their learning and their power. In 

 thus speaking of patronage, I do not mean to say that, how- 

 ever splendid it may be, it will create such talent as that 

 which I have named, but that it will excite and call it forth, 

 and display its powers, which, but for such stimulating causes, 

 might have been lost to their possessors and the world ; " for 

 such is the constitution of the human mind, that if once it is 

 agitated the emotions often spread beyond the occasion which 

 caused them ; when the passions are roused their course is 

 unrestrained ; when the fancy is on the wing its flight is un- 

 bounded ; and, quitting the inanimate objects which first gave 

 them their spring, we may be led, by thought above thought, 

 widely differing in degree, but still corresponding in character, 

 till we rise from familiar subjects to the sublimest conceptions, 

 and are wrapt in the contemplation of whatever is great or 

 beautiful, which we see in nature, feel in man, or attribute to 

 the Divinity." 



"With reference to the Elgin Marbles, we can only speak of 

 such exquisitely beautiful pieces of sculpture in comparison 

 with those which we had been taught to consider as perfection 

 in art ; these (when compared with most of the other antique 

 statues which time has left to us) have a highly poetical feel- 

 ing, combined with a truth and fidelity to nature which is 

 truly admirable ; they appear to be produced by a single 

 effort, and to spring intuitively into almost life and existence ; 

 while the Apollo, the Laocoon, the Venus de Medici, and 



