Aio On the Beautiful in the Grecian Statues, 
only foundation, and that there is no other rule 
or principle, by which our estimation of the 
beautiful is influenced ; but I think it to be the 
principal foundation : and the remarkable con- 
sentaneity of taste and decision of the beautiful, 
especially of the human figure, proves that our 
rule is derived from nature, from our constant ob- 
servation of the originals, as they have issued from 
the forming hand of the great artist ; and that thus 
acquiring an abstract idea of the whole, we enter 
as it were, whether intending it or no, into the 
mind of the artist himself, and erect a standard of 
what he designed as the most perfect, and there- 
fore the most beautiful, in the form which he has 
. given to man. 
In this investigation of the standard of taste 
and the decision of the beautiful, although a 
general consent be acknowledged, yet itis mani- 
fest that the rule or standard will be more or less 
perfect, as the field of observation has Been more 
or less extensive, and as successive comparisons 
with the standard already attained, and the intro- 
duction to more perfect forms, with fewer devi- 
ations from the medium character, have chastened 
in the imagination the picture of the beautiful. 
Every step in the progress towards this perfect 
image is the selection of a few from the general 
