mention, that two of the most celebrated 

 statues of Juno and Minerva were colossal, 

 whereas the Guidian Venus of Praxiteles, 

 the most famous of any of the statues of 

 that goddess, was of the natural size.* 



But if beauty should not be colossal, so 

 neither should it be diminutive in size or 

 character. There seems to belong to the 

 idea of genuine beauty, a certain mild and 

 graceful dignit} r , as well as an exact sym- 

 metry ; and therefore, when in nature the 

 scale is below the common standard, and 

 the character wants that degree of eleva- 

 tion, we are apt to call such objects pretty, 

 rather than beautiful ; just as we call them 

 fine, when in the opposite extreme. Again 



* Though no great argument can be drawn from the size 

 of statues, which might be varied according to the sculp- 

 tor's fancy, yet I cannot help mentioning, that Pausanias, 

 in describing a statue of Diana (also by Praxiteles) observes, 

 that its stature exceeded that of the tallest woman. As the 

 large stature of Diana is often remarked by the poets, this 

 difference between the statues of the two goddesses by the 

 same sculptor, seems to shew an attention to the supposed 

 proportion of different deities. Pausanias, Jib. x. cap. S7. 



