530 
* 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THE DILLETANTI YOURIST, 
In a seRIES Of LETTERS, from an AMA» 
TEUR in LONDON, (oO @ FRIEND near 
MancuEsTER.—No. I, 
OU much flatter me, in requesting 
my opinion upon the different 
‘works of ancient art now in England ; 
yet I am free to tell you, that your claims - 
on my industry, in describing thei, will 
e sooner liquidated than those on my 
critical abilities, in pointing out to you 
their merits. Still as you have requested 
it, to you, as my oldest friend and school- 
mate, will { attempt it; and in so doing 
I must first observe that you appear to 
have drawn your opinions on British art, 
British artists, and British. collections, 
from books long ago defunct. Your 
weeping and wailing on the want of such 
a collection in England, as the Musée 
Napoleon, 1 do most peremptorily re- 
fuse to join in, And although you may 
say truly, that the Royal Academy have 
not one original piece of ancient sculp- 
ture, yet the singular beauty and num- 
ber of the casts leave but little for the 
student to wish for, as far as regards his 
immediate purpose of drawing. 
But I glory when I tell you of the 
choice, exquisite, and (oh! that 1 could 
find epithets equal to my feelings) de- 
lightful collections of antique art our 
country now possesses. Iam in raptures, 
I can scarcely think or dream of any 
_ thing else, than the jewels of the Townly 
and Elgin collections of ancient sculp- 
tures. I shall unburden my mind, in 
endeavouring to communicate some of 
my delightful feelings to my friend, by 
describing to him those more than hu- 
man works, those august remains of an- 
cient splendor and magnificence. Itisa 
most yratifying task, believe me, and I 
shall in performing it enjoy the pleasure, 
like the veteran soldier in recounting his 
battles a second time, who 
———-Fought all his battles o’er again, 
And thrice he slew the slain. | 
In viewing these admiranda of an- 
tique art, my first impression was that ef 
~ wonder and delight, of what our Gallic 
neighbours, expressively, call le be/ an- 
tigue. The distinctive characteristics of 
both tisese collections, like their separat- 
ed compeers, are the supreme beauty of 
the human form, and particularly that of 
man’s grand feature, the head; grandeur 
and elevation of character, and sublime 
and noble expressions of the passions, 
subordinate, however, to that of beauty. 
The ancients, particularly the Greeks, 
The Dilletanti Tourtst.—No. I. 
. ; 
(Jan. 1, 
sought rather to represent ideal beauty, 
than sunply to copy nature ; we have, 
therefore,of their works,moreVenus’s, Ju- 
piters, Ganymedes, Cupids, Hercules’s, 
Fauns, Satyrs, and other ideal personi- 
fications of the ancient mythology, than 
portraits of their chiefs, their heroes, or 
their legislators. The importance of these 
collections to our fame as a nation, and 
to our improvement as artists, cannot be 
too highly estimated ; therefore to parlia- 
ment, to my Lord Elgin, and to other 
illustrious patronizers of the arts, my in- 
dividual gratitude is readily bestowed, 
and from every lover of his country’s 
fame is most justly due. 
To arrive at the nearest point to per- 
fection in the arts, we should most zea- 
lously study the finest examples of antique 
art; and in eontemplating, and copy- 
ing them form our taste ; and, in the end, 
acquire that justness and grandeur of cha+ 
racter which cnaracterize the Grecian ar- 
tists. Knowing the indispensable neces- 
sity of the study of the antique, parlia- 
ment has wisely thrown epen the doors 
of whatever is under their controul, to 
the use and study of artists, who aye 
bound in return, by assiduity and atten- 
tion, and by progressive improvement 
to repay such inestimable favours ; and L 
hope the time is not far distant, when 
others that are now private, will not be 
closed from the uninterrupted study of 
the aspiring artist. From the British In- 
stitution (the prospectus, and plan of 
which 1 lately sent you) the British Mu- 
seum, the Royal Academy, the Elgin, the 
Stafford, the Arundel, and other truly 
noble collections, what ought we not to 
expect? The long-predicted, the long- 
expected blaze of British Art ! 
** They come! great Goddess! I the time 
behold ! 
The times our fathers in the bloody field, 
Have earn’d so dear, and, not with less re- 
nown, 
In the warm struggles of the senate—fight, 
The times I see ! whose glory to supply, 
For toiling ages Commerce round the world, 
Has wing’d unnumber’d sails, and from each 
land 
Materials heap’d, that, well employ’d, with 
' Rome . , 
Might vie our grandeur, and with Greece our 
art.” 
Thomson's Liberty, Part 5, v. 565. 
It was from the study of the antique 
that the greatest modern artists, the Ra» 
phaels, the Michael Angelo’s, the Rey- 
nolds’s, of modern times, attained that 
degree of perfection, which ' snatches 
from 
