On the Beautiful in the Grecian Statues. 435 
and exercise.;.manners that awake no mental 
energies, invite to.,no. pleasant, healthful, spor- 
tiveness ; intemperance in the hours of rest; and, 
what.alone is sufficient to- every. Aepradahice of 
form and beauty, confinement in the, poisoned 
vapour of crowded...and heated) rooms. The 
inference, is, obvious... The, modern Europeaa 
cannot rival the. artist of antient Greece. ~He 
has. not the same originals.. Nature presented 
herself unviolated to the Greek ; injured and per= 
verted, she can exhibit to the E edad only: her 
weaker productions. 
‘To these considerations may re added, has 
j have already alluded,.to, that the Greek artists 
were men of the first form, weil educated, and of 
high, consideration: , Superior instruction, and 
admission to the highest honours, elevate the 
mind, excite grander conceptions, and exalt the 
taste ; especially in an age and country, where 
the passion for fame was the stimulant to all great 
exertions, and furnished to every one the most 
generous gratification, The philosophic Socrates, 
that, wondrous man among the Greeks, was him- 
self.a statuary, and is said to have sculptured 
three very; beautiful figures of the Graces, 
Without intending any thing unhandsome to 
latex artists, the same elevation of mind can. 
not be equally affirmed of them. The motive 
of gain, always sordid and depressing, and 
