LOOKING-&LASS. 33 
prove what he previoufly knew in theory and from 
dcmonftration. 
With fuch a fund of information, the ftudent 
would do well to improve himfelf by copying an- 
cient ftatues, with hopes of imitating, in fome mea- 
fure, theirbeauties; for, by thefe fundamental accom- 
plilhments, he might clearly fee the way before 
him in his profeffion, and be foon able not only to 
delineate juftly all the mufcular motions, but alfo 
to explain the caufe and main fprings of every gef- 
ture in a mafterly manner. 
It remains for us to refute another obje6lion 
which might be flarted againft the abfolute necef- 
lity of anatomy, from a confideration, that without 
this fcience the Greeks produced mafter-pieces. 
But if hiftorians do not dwell upon their (kill in it, 
we are at liberty to entertain doubts about their 
ignorance in that refpeff ; efpecially as it was im- 
poffible for them to fucceed fo well in every imita- 
tion of Nature, unlefs they had polTefled fecrets 
unknown to their pofterity. 
In the nioft remote times of antiquity, bodily 
exercife was fo much the more common, as the 
united ftrength of individuals compofed the power 
of a nation. The fate of an empire then depended 
on the ilTue of a fmgle combat between one man 
and another ; juft as each could wield the firft arms 
ufed in the held, before they had dared to imitate 
the thunder of heaven, or invent eafter means of 
D deftruffion 
