406 On the Merit of the Ancients 
progrefs in the fpacious field of fcience!—This 
fhort efiay is intended to point out the excel¬ 
lencies of the ancients in the imitative arts: 
yet, at the fame time, to allow the moderns 
their due fhare of fame, in having, not only 
made fome improvements, but inventions, of 
which the ancients were entirely ignorant. 
There is not a doubt, but the ancients pofleffed 
a polilhed tafte, and a critical knowledge of the 
various and exquifite forms of beauty : they 
knew the arts, could only receive their per¬ 
fection from ideal beauty fuperior to what is 
ever found, in individual, and imperfect nature. 
There is no man equal, in ftrength and pro¬ 
portion to the Farnefian Hercules: nor, any 
woman comparable, for fymmetry of form, to 
Medicean Venus. 
Thefe inftances feem to prove, that the au¬ 
thors of the fineft remains of antiquity formed 
to themfelves ideas of perfect nature, and 
collected from various individuals, what no 
one could fupply. 
It is faid, that Zeuxis, when he painted his 
Helena, feleCted five of the molt beautiful 
virgins that could be found; and, whatever 
nature had formed molt: perfeCt in each, he 
united in a Angle figure. 
Thus painters, and fculptors, render their 
ideas more perfeCV, and exalt their Art above 
Nature 
