416 Onthe Beautiful in the Grecian Statues, 
states are found the most perfect imitations of 
the beautiful in the human form, that have been 
introduced to our knowledge. If no proper 
standard of beauty can be acquired in any other 
way ; if the Greeks perfected their conception of 
the beautiful by a nice and delicate attention to 
this rule ; if they had more favoured originals to 
collect from, and had a freer access to these rich 
origirials ; if the Greek statuarists were men of 
the first consideration, and besides their special 
art, had their minds raised and chastened by all 
the advantages, which learning, science and cul- 
tivated taste can confer ; then it is a well-founded 
presumption, that their statues as imitations of 
the beautiful, are of the first form, and have pro- 
bably not been equalled by the similar produc- 
tions of any other nation, if to the statuaries of 
no other nation the same means and advantages 
have been extended. 
’ This standard of beauty thus station: and the 
only standard common to all men, may be called 
the Sentimental standard; as its primary deriva 
tion is from the immediate sense or impression of 
the human form upon the mind of the observer, 
and its ultimate result is the mean of all the 
agreeable sensations which the beautiful of human 
form have made upon the mind. 
