of Greece are more frequently mentioned than their paintings; are spoken of and dwelt upon in fuch terms, as fufficiently fhew them to have been confidered as the fuperior and more admirable exertions of the taste and genius of that elegant people..

- If we admit thefe circumftances to account for the very high degree of perfection which Grecian Sculpture attained, it will not be very difficult to explain why they have never been furpaffed, and why the art itfelf has ever fince declined. When any art has received a very high, or perhaps its utmost degree of perfection, this circumstance of itself neceffarily deftroys that noble emulation which alone can ftimulate to excellence. Confcious of being unable to furpafs the great models which he fees, the artift is difcouraged from making attempts. The posts of honour are already occupied; fuperior praise and glory are not to be reached; and the ardour of the artift is checked by perceiving that he cannot exceed, and that, after all his efforts, he will not be able perhaps to equal, the productions of thofe mafters who have already the advantage of an established reputation.

It is for these reasons, as has been justly obferved, that when the arts and fciences come to perfection in any ftate, they from that moment naturally

naturally and neceffarily decline; and if this be the cafe, then surely the more perfect degree of excellence any art has attained, the more certain must be its-after-decay. We may indeed carry the obfervation fomewhat farther, and affirm, that if the art has arrived at the higheft degree of perfection of which it is capable in any age, or in any fituation, that art will not only naturally decline amongst the people where it fo flourished, but that this circumftance will prevent its ever being again brought to any confiderable pitch of improvement amongst any other people, while the firft perfect models remain. The excellence of Homer, whatever might be its effects on his own countrymen, did not reprefs the genius of Virgil or of Lucretius; nor did the reputation of these great poets of antiquity check the ardour of Taffo or of Milton. But the difference of language, the infinite choice of fubjects, and the variety of powers which poetry can employ, prevent the eminence of a poet in one country from having much effect in damping the efforts of the poets in another. With regard to Sculpture, however, the cafe is widely different. No diverfity of fubjects, no variety of powers to exert, no difference in the mode of expreffing his conceptions, fall to the share of a Statuary. A correct representation of the exterior human

form,

form, marked perhaps with fome of the ftronger expreffions of the countenance, the chufing a graceful or a striking figure, the throwing it into a pleafing or an interesting attitude, and the finishing the whole production with the moft nice and exquifite workmanship, conftitute the utmost limits of the Sculptor's art. When the highest excellence in thefe, therefore, has been attained, and while those perfect models remain, they must ever after repress emulation in the art, and crufh all the efforts of genius.

Together with this general caufe, there is another which has very much contributed to the decline of the art of Sculpture in modern times, and that is, the great improvements, and the extraordinary pitch of excellence which Painting attained foon after the revival of arts and letters in Europe. This had naturally the effect of directing the attention of all ingenious artifts to cultivate the art of Painting, where glory and praife were fure to be acquired, rather than to Statuary, where no laurels were to be won. The models of ancient Statuary held the place of nature to the study and imitation of the great artists of that time: but imitative ingenuity and ambition had no room in working on marble, after marbles already perfect. To tranflate them (if I may be allowed

the

the expreffion) into painting, was an object that gave emulation fcope; and in fact it happened that the chifel of the Greeks was the great guide of the Roman pencil. Not only the novelty of the art of Painting, in consequence of the improvements it had received, but also the greater field which it afforded for the exertions of genius, contributed to render it the great object of attention. The more perfect representation it exhibited of the human form by the aid of colouring, the variety of figures which it admitted of being introduced, and the opportunity it prefented of interesting and engaging the paffions of the beholder, were all circumstances which naturally concurred to make it be held the more favoured and estimable dif play of an artist's power,

D

N° 74. SATURDAY, July 1, 1786.

IT is a well-known confolation to distress, to be told of the like infelicity which others endure. Perhaps, therefore, my late correfpondent Mr. Eafy may not be difpleased to read the following letters, which will fhew him, if the relations of my correfpondents are to be relied on, that matches of love, as well as of prudence, may have their difadvantages; that a wife's affection, as well as her oeconomy, may imprifon a man's perfon, may exclude him from his best society, and abridge his most innocent amufements.

SIR,

To the LOUNger.

T was my misfortune to lofe my father in a

IT

few months after I came into the world. He was a gentleman of family in the county of -— where he poffeffed a moderate fortune, and had married mother not much above a year bemy fore his death. When fhe was thus deprived of her husband, fhe had not finifhed her twen