450 ON THE PROGRESS OF SCULPTURE. 



intrinsic merit, it forms almost the only literary 

 relic of the late very learned and most accom- 

 plished president of this society. 



The following sketch was formed out of the 

 materials collected for an Introduction to an 

 Essay on the Elgin Marbles. I state this fact in 

 order to account for the absence of many particu- 

 lars which might have been expected in the Life 

 of an Artist ; but which would pre-occupy the 

 ground I intended to take in a future Essay. A 

 disquisition like the one proposed, in order to be 

 executed in a manner satisfactory either to my 

 colleagues or myself, demands a greater portion 

 of leisure, and a mind less engaged and engrossed 

 than I can at present command. 



Notwithstanding the confessed superiority of 

 the Greeks in the imitative arts, statuary and 

 painting were plants of late growth, and raised to 

 perfection by slow degrees. 



We are informed by Pausanias, that, in the 

 early stages of Grecian history, the only repre- 

 sentations of their various deities were shapeless 



