RISE AND PROGRESS 



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and stood ready for war or \visilmn, BMCftaH 

 returned reeling from l<!ia. Neptune grasped 

 his trident, and extended his hand over the 

 empire of the sea, while Jupiter brandished his 

 thunderbolt, and sinlfd out his victim. The 

 looks and lineaments of these creations were 

 frMMn nature exalted and spiritualized ; nil that 

 was mean, coarse, ill-shapen, and earthly was 

 avoided ; no detail was entered into ; the ap- 

 pearance of youth was given, without anything 

 which hinted of the nurse or the cradle ; and the 

 looks of age were bestowed, without the furrows 

 and the decay incident to man. A divine spirit 

 teemed to have entered into the loveliest of all 

 created shapes ; the beholder felt a lifting up as 

 he gazed : the statues of the gods were the poe- 

 try of the land charmed into marble. 



Human deeds were treated by the Greek 

 artists in something of a similar manner. Each 

 individual was characterized by the action in 

 which he was represented. The forms were 

 noble, the proportions just ; age was there, and 

 so was youth ; yet any person of knowledge or 

 taste could see at once that they were all human, 

 not divine. The actions which the gods per- 

 formed were done with a divine ease, which cost 

 the body no exertion. The actions of man 

 demanded muscular effort, and were accom- 

 plished with labour and difficulty. Apollo and 

 Bacchus were celestial conquerors, yet look at 

 their smooth and elegant forms ; men with such 

 bodies could not have prevailed in the strife as 

 they did. It was otherwise that Hercules was 

 represented ; he is all sinew, and muscle, and 

 bone ; he was of earth, and as he wrought more 

 with hand than mind, the sculptors delineated 

 him of gigantic proportions, and gave him 

 members fit for the tear and wear of his under- 

 takings. He is shown resting on his club, and 

 reposing from his toils like a mere mortal ; while 

 Apollo slays the Pythian serpent with the ease 

 of a god, and seems unconscious of doing any- 

 thing uncommon. Few of their statues were 

 meditative ; there was a dramatic spirit in the 

 people, which may be seen as strong in their 

 epic poetry, and in their works of art, as it is in 

 their dramas. No figure stood there the idle 

 <>< upier of its pedestal ; a god was busied in 

 some action for the good of Greece, or the over- 

 throw of its enemies ; while a mortal seized his 

 word to march to war, or his harp to charm his 

 hearers with harmony. Life and thought were 

 impressed on sculpture and painting. 



All this was not accomplished by inspiration 

 lone ; study and science were resorted to. The 

 greatest of all mechanical achievements is to 



draw tlio human figure with perfect truth of pro. 

 portion and outline ; the greatest effort if the 

 mind is to endow that figure with high feeling 

 and sentiment ; to unite both is a power bestowed 

 on few. To draw a hill or a tree requires a fine 

 eye and a true hand ; but the hill may be of 

 irregular shape, and the tree may not be equal 

 on all sides, and a slight deviation is not 

 observed, and affects not the character of either : 

 it is otherwise with a true proportioned human 

 figure ; the separate parts are in themselves so 

 beautiful, and the union of the whole so harmo- 

 nious, that the slightest deviation injures the 

 figure, and robs it of that perfect grace which it 

 possesses more than any other created thing. 

 In the science of their art the Greeks seem to 

 have excelled all other nations. Nothing in 

 sculpture in ancient Rome or modern Europe 

 can be compared to the unity and harmony of 

 their statues and groups ; no drawing has ap- 

 peared to rival the exquisite elegance of their 

 bounding lines. All with them is easy, graceful, 

 and simple ; there is no straining for effect, no 

 picturesque throes to arrest the spectator ; they 

 trusted all to natural beauty of form and divinity 

 of sentiment. Their statues still survive in 

 hundreds to attest the truth of this assertion ; and 

 though their paintings have perished, we have 

 every reason to believe that they at least equalled 

 the sculpture in truth and beauty. 



In Egypt and India, architecture, sculpture, 

 and painting, were united : in Greece, the inven- 

 tive genius of the people soon gave an individual 

 existence and dignity to each : or rather sculpture 

 and painting escaped from the mechanical clutches 

 of architecture, and rose into the regions of poetry 

 as separate arts. It is true that a Greek temple 

 was raised for the worship of the gods, and that 

 on its pediments and niches, statues and groups 

 were carved, and scenes painted, representing 

 the persons or exploits of those divinities ; here, 

 however, the resemblance ends ; the statuary and 

 the paintings in the temples of the Nile were 

 subordinate to the architecture ; the images sup- 

 ported the roof or the pediments, the reliefs were 

 flat and unobtrusive, and the painting, or rather 

 staining, was all subdued and kept down, soefliat 

 the genius of architecture triumphed. The 

 Greeks soon perceived that architecture was of a 

 limited nature, and that the two slaves had more 

 of true divinity in them ; the fairest proportions, 

 the finest combinations, and the most exquisite 

 workmanship of the former told no story con- 

 tained no sentiment, and performed no action 

 fabulous or real ; the latter had sentiment, action, 

 and, I had almost said, speech. A temple be- 

 came in Greece a receptacle for exhibiting tho 



