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beautiful forms, and in a country where 

 beauty in either sex had almost divine ho- 

 nours paid to it, made those forms their 

 peculiar study, and who, by means of the 

 noble and durable art of sculpture, have 

 been able to embody their ideas. 



Fortunately, some few at least of their 

 finest productions still remain ; and by ex- 

 amining the different antique statues, busts, 

 gems, and coins ; by comparing the ideas 

 which they present with those of the poets, 

 and with those also which are expressed in 

 the works of the great masters of the revived 

 arts of painting and sculpture , and all of 

 them again with the existing forms of na«- 

 ture, — I think it will appear, that there is 

 in the human form a character, which may 

 be pronounced strictly and purely beauti- 

 ful. By allying beauty with any of the 

 more sublime qualities, the result will be 

 more awful and imposing, but less lovely 

 and engaging ; it may be a Juno, or a Pal- 

 las, but no longer a Venus : and, it may 

 not be foreign to my present argument to 



