GREEK SCULPTURE. 29 



' Not yet dead. 

 But in old marbles ever beautiful,' 



we will find our suspicions as to the inaccuracy of those 

 who assert that this people provided an armour for their 

 horses' feet, more than confirmed. 



It must be remembered that the Greeks were the first 

 true interpreters of nature. To this their physical organ- 

 ization, their climate, but, perhaps, most of all their re- 

 ligion, concurred to develop those principles of beauty 

 that induce man to select from nature the forms and 

 combinations which give the highest and most endurable 

 pleasure. 



The creations of these people, who, according to Pin- 

 dar, 



' Strew'd o'er their walls, their public ways, 

 The sculptured life, the breathing stone,'' 



now that two thousand years have passed away, yet, and 

 will ever, command the admiration of refined taste, speak- 

 ing, as they do, to our imagination and understanding, 

 while carrying with them the greatest beauty of proportion, 

 the utmost simplicity and truth in design, and blending a 

 harmony with a purity and regard for nature such as has 

 never been surpassed. We recognize in their sculptures 

 of horses that intense and astonishing expression of life, 

 which none but the greatest artists are capable of bestow- 

 ing on their imitations of nature, when teeming with 

 vitality and action. Theocritus, two thousand years ago, 

 was enraptured with these chisellings : 



* How true they stand, and move, and quite appear 

 Alive, not wrought ! What clever things men are ! ' - 



' Olympic Ode, VII. ^ Idyll xv. 83. 



