STA 
portion, therefore, which is founded on 
knowledge, may be strictly observed in any 
figure, and yet the figure have no preten- 
sions to beauty. The ancients considering 
ideal beauty as the most perfect, have fre- 
quently employed it in preference to the 
beauty of nature. It is probable that the 
Grecian as well as the Egyptian artists, de- 
termined the great and small proportions 
by fixed rules ; that they established a posi- 
tive measure for the dimensions of length, 
breadth, and circumference. This supposi- 
tion alone can enable us to account for the 
great conformity which we meet with in 
ancient statues. Winkelman thinks that 
the foot was the measure which the antients 
used in all their great dimensions, and that 
it was by the length of it that they regulated 
the measure of their figures by giving to 
them six times that length. This, in fact, 
is tlie length which Vitruvius assigns, lib. 3, 
cap. 1. That celebrated architect thinks 
the foot is a more determinate measure than 
the head or tlie face, the parts from which 
modern painters and sculptors often take 
their proportions. This proportion of the 
foot to the body, which has appeared strange 
and incomprehensible to the learned Hue- 
tius, and has been entirely rejected by Per- 
raiilt, is, however, founded upon experience. 
After measuring with great care a vast num- 
ber of figures, Winkelman found this pro- 
portion not only in Egyptian statues, but 
also in those of Greece. This fact may 
be determined by an inspection of those 
statues the feet of which are perfect ; and 
one may be more fully convinced of it 
by examining some figures of the Greek 
divinities ; in which the artists have made 
some parts beyond their natural dimensions. 
In the Apollo Belvidere, which is a little 
more than seven heads high, the foot is 
three Roman inches longer than the head. 
The head of the Venus de Medicis is very 
small, and the height of the statue is seven 
heads and a half ; the foot is three inches 
and a half longer than the head, or pre- 
cisely the sixth part of the length of the 
whole statue. 
Other writers are of opinion, that the 
following rules form a principal part of the 
•system of Grecian sculpture : the body 
consists of three parts, as well as the mem- 
bers. The three parts of the body are, 
the trunk, the thighs, and the legs. The 
inferior part of the body are the thighs, the 
legs, and the feet. The arms also consist of 
three parts. These three parts must bear 
a certain proportion to the whole, as well 
STA 
as to one anotlier. In a well-formed man, 
the head and body must be proportioned 
to the thighs, the Idgs, and the feet, in the 
same manner as the thighs are proportioned 
to the legs and the feet, or the arms to the 
hands. The face also consists of three 
parts, that is, three times the length of 
the nose ; but the head is not four times 
the lengtli of the nose, as some writers 
have asserted. From the place where 
the hair begins to the crown of the head, 
are only three-fourths of the length of the 
nose, or that part is to the nose as nine to 
twelve. 
STATUTE, is a written law, made with 
the concurrence of the King and both 
houses of parliament. Divers acts of par- 
liament have attempted to bar, restrain, 
suspend, qualify, or make void the acts of 
subsequent parliaments : but this could ne- 
ver be effected, for a latter parliament hath 
ever power to abrogate, suspend, qualify, 
or make void the acts of a former, in the 
whole, or any part thereof, notwithstand- 
ing any words of restraint or prohibition in 
the acts of the former. 
When a statute is repealed, all acts done 
under it, while it was in force, are good ; 
but if it is declared null, all those are void. 
Where a statute, before perpetual, is con- 
tinued by an affirmative statute for a time, 
this does not amount to a repeal of it at 
the end of that time. When two acts con- 
tradictoi’y to each other are passed in tlie 
same session, the tatter only shall take fef- 
fect. Formerly acts of parliament took 
effect from the beginning of the session ; by 
a recent statute they have effect from the 
day on which they are passed. 
Statutes, construction of, comprehends 
the following rules : 1. In the construction 
of remedial statutes, there are three points 
which require consideration, viz. the old 
law, the mischief, and the remedy, that is, 
how the common law stood at the making 
of the act; what the mischief was, for 
which the common law did not provide; 
and what remedy the parliament hath pro- 
vided to cure this mischief. And it is the 
business of the judge, so to construe the 
act, as to suppress the mischief and advance 
the remedy. An instance may be specified 
in the restraining statute of 13 Elizabeth, 
c. 10. By the common law, ecclesiastical 
corporation, might let as long leases as they 
thought proper ; the mischief was, that they 
let long and unreasonable leases, to the im- 
poverishment of their successors ; the re- 
medy applied by the statute was the mak- 
