Mineralogy of Sky. 107 



determine its qualities ; two are to be seen in the British museum. 

 Of these there is the bust of a Philosopher, of, apparently, antient 

 and very dry workmanship : the other is the celebrated Disco- 

 bulus. It is known that Myron the Athenian, who flourished 

 about 440 A.C. executed a work of this character in bronze : 

 but we have no evidence respecting the marble statue, and artists 

 have therefore remained in doubt whether it was executed by him- 

 self or was a copy by another hand. This question cannot be 

 positively decided by the sculpture itself, however high its merits. 

 In the mean time a step is gained by the mineralogical investigation 

 of the material, and thus mineralogy is capable of throwing light on 

 the history of the arts. The substance in which it is wrought must 

 therefore be considered a sufficient proof of the antiquity of the 

 copy, if it be such, as well as of its having been executed at Athens, 

 since the quarries of Pentelicus were abandoned in consequence of 

 their defects, as soon as those of Carrara and Luna were known. 

 Although it is difficult or impossible to determine this period, yet 

 as so few works in Pentelic marble posterior to the time of Phidias 

 and of Myron have descended to us, it is probable that little use 

 was made of those quarries after the period of these artists. We 

 are therefore, perhaps, entitled to conclude that the Discobulus of 

 the Townley collection is an Athenian work of the best age of 

 sculpture, and not a copy by any more modern artist ; and that if 

 it was executed neither by Myron himself nor under his direction, 

 it is yet not likely to have been much inferior to the original, while 

 it may serve, at the same time, as some proof of the esteem in 

 which that work was held at Athens. 



But the most numerous examples of Pentelic marble are to be 

 found in those works of Phidias which form the collection of Lord 

 Elgin, and which afford easy access to examination. In the 



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