1798. ] 
{ible than the objects which they examine. 
A very different connoiffeur was the hit- 
torian Livy, who defcribes Paulus Emi- 
Hius afcending Olympia and inf{pecting 
the ivory ftatue of Jupiter by Phidias— 
Velut prefentem intucns, motus animo ef}. 
Struck with awe, as if in the prefence of 
the God himfelf! It was indeed one of 
the fublimeft efforts of art. <*It mut 
have exhaufted,’’ fays De Pauw, “ the 
fpoils of three hundred elephants ;’” and 
fome have even cenfured the artift for his 
violation of the laws of fymmetry, in 
placing fo coloffal a ftatue in a temple. 
Seated on a throne, it almoft reached the 
dome of the temple ; and the appearance 
of the deity, to a fine imagination, feemed 
‘to be diffufed through its refidence. 
/Emilius, as Plutarch reports, faid, hap- 
pily—** This Jupiter of Phidias, is the 
very Jupiter ot Homer!”” Whata diff- 
culty oyercome by that artift, to render 
vifible the metaphylical ideas of poetry | 
What modern iculptor could give us a 
Satan which fhould convey the idea of 
‘< His ftature reach’d the sx yy andon his creft 
SAT HORROR PLUMED.” 
Yet allthis is Bur fublimi‘y! More 
natural is the exquifite fenfation of that 
ideal beauty, which, probably, is more 
delicious, and more congenial to the ten- 
dernefs of a fine tafte. An amateur, 
lately deceafed, formed the fincereft paf- 
fion for the buft of a Minerva, and paffed 
many hours of his lite as its faithful 
dover ; his portrait has been engraved, 
meditating on the buft. I will juft ob- 
ferve, for the reader’s entertainment, that 
MARBLE BEAUTY has a phyfical influ- 
ence, and delicate nerves may thrill be- 
fore a ftatue. SraTueEs have had, and 
are faid ftill to have, MEN FOR LOVERS. 
This paflion was carried very high in an- 
cient Greece, where, perhaps, the popu- 
Jar belief of their divinity might partly 
prompt it. But I muft add another cir- 
cumftance, which M. de Pauw feems very 
fatisfactorily to have proved: the Gre- 
cians were diftinguifhed by a fingular 
perfection of their optical organs; and 
Winkelman fhews, that in the time of 
Homer; large globular eyes, with a 
widened focket, were confidered as the 
fublimeft beauty. The numerous facts 
which’ prove their vifual extent, are al- 
moft incredible—many feats of gallantry 
were practifed with thefe perfect, but in- 
fenfible beauties. One gave himfelf a vo- 
Juntary death, in the extacy of defpair, 
at the feet of his beloved ; ‘another, fav- 
ing many a day mufed on the Venus of 
Praxiteles, there fixing his eyes, there 
Ancient 8 tatues.—Purple Light of Venus. 
363 
= ested ve te h 
murmuring his complaints, at lengt 
concealed himifelf one night in the temple, . 
protaned in his embrace the ftatue, and 
was condemned to be thrown into the fea ! 
The moit reafonable being, who was 
touched by this infanity of tafte, was one 
who tried a thoufand inventions to give 
duétility to the hardnels, colour to the 
beauty, and warmth to the coldnefs of 
his favourite; but the unrelenting object 
of his affections, rigidly preferved the 
hardnefs of her gracile arms, and the icy 
feel of her beauteous body. Even in mo- 
dern times it is related that the Venus of 
Medicis has made many fimilar conquelts, 
and it became neceflary to have that Mu- 
fidora narrowly watched. A ftatue of 
Michael Angelo occafioned an amorous 
lunacy in the fervid brain of a Spaniard, 
and this very ftatue is now veiled, as it 
bears the effects of his violent paflion. 
See ‘* Memetres de L’ Academié des Belles 
Letires,” vol. 25, p. 319. °° Voyages de 
M. Siihouette,’ tom. 1. p. 231. 
The following lines on STATUES are 
worth tranferibing : 

Nor paffing years, nor fire, nor fword, 
Have yet availed fuch. sEauTy to annul. | 
Even Gods themfelves, their mimic forms 
admire, 
And wifh their own were equal to the feigned. 
Nor e’er could Nature Deities create, 
With jduch a countenance as MAN HAS 
GIVEN 
To thefe fairsTATUES, creatures of hisown ! 
Worfhip they claim, tho’ more from nUMAN 
ART, 
Than from THEIR OWN DIVINITY ador’d. 
Harris's Verfion of fome lines of Hildebertd 
‘See © Philological Inquiries,” p. 428. 
It is remarkable, that a bifhop wrote 
them. 

THE Purpbe LIGHT OF VENUS. 
It is extremely difficult to conceive 
what the ancients meant by the word pur- 
pureus. .They probably defigned by it 
any thing BRIGHT and BEAUTIFUL. 
Albinovanus, in his elegy on Livia, 
mentions Nivem purpureum. Catullus, 
Quercus ramos purpureos. Horace, Pur- 
pureo bibit neéfar—and fomewhere men- 
tions, Olores purpurcos. Virgil has Pur- 
puream vomit ille animam, which Pitt ren- 
ders a purple foul; and Homer calls the 
fea purple, Il. L. 1. 82, and gives it in 
fome other book the fame epithet, when 
in a ftorm. I am obliged to two claflical 
friends for~ having furnifhed me with 
thefe, and numerous other inftances, in 
which the meanings are very contradic- 
tory. 
‘The 
