Memoir of Arthur Young, Esq. 301 



I had seen of it, which have often made me wonder at descrip- 

 tions of the original, I was eager to hurry to the tribua, for a 

 view of the dangerous goddess. It is not easy to speak of 

 such divine beauty with any sobriety of language ; nor without 

 hyperbole to express one's admiration, when felt with any 

 degree of enthusiasm ; and who but must feel admiration at 

 the talents of the artist, that thus almost animated marble ? 

 If we suppose an original, beautiful as this statue, and doubly 

 animated, not with life only, but with a passion for some 

 favoured lover, the marble of Cleomenes is not more inferior 

 to such life in the eyes of such a lover, than all the casts that 

 I have seen of this celebrated statue are to the inimitable 

 original. You may view it till the unsteady eye doubts the 

 truth of its own sensation : the cold marble seems to acquire 

 the warmth of nature, and promises to yield to the impression 

 of one's hand. Nothing in painting so miraculous as this. A 

 sure proof of the rare merit of this wonderful production is, 

 its exceeding, in truth of representation, every idea which is 

 previously formed ; the reality of the chisel goes beyond the 

 expectancy of the imagination ; the visions of the fancy may 

 play in fields of creation, may people them with nymphs of 

 more than human beauty ; but to imagine life thus to be 

 fashioned from stone ; that the imitation shall exceed, in per- 

 fection, all that common nature has to offer, is beyond the 

 compass of what ordinary minds have a power of conceiving; 

 In the same apartment there are other statues, but, in the 

 presence of Venus, who is it that can regard them ? They are, 

 however, some of the finest in the world, and must be re- 

 served for another day. Among the pictures, which indeed 

 form a noble collection, my eyes were rivetted on the portrait 

 of Julius 2d., by Raphael, which, if I possessed, I would not 

 give for the St, John, the favourite idea he repeated so often. 

 The colours have in this piece given more life to canvass, than 

 northern eyes have been accustomed to acknowledge. But the 

 Titian! — enough of Venus; — at the same moment to animate 

 marble, and breathe on canvass, is too much. By husbanding 

 the luxury of the sight, let us keep the eye from being 



