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the Indian polytheism. It is therefore difficult to explain, whence originated the Venus, the Graces, the Hebe, and Ganymede of the Greeks; for however these might have existed among the lovers of the Lotos and the worshippers of the Ganges, I find no substantial traces of such lovely personages in the horrid system of Egypt; and from Egypt alone and the bordering countries had the Greeks their origin, their alphabet, their first laws, and their first philosophy. On this subject I am no antiquarian. I care little for the systems of Bailly, of Bryant, or of Jones, because they do not necessarily interfere with my subject; but when I was to write slightly on the sculpture of Greece, whose most perfect forms are displayed in models of celestial intelligences, it was natural to ask, whence the deities particularly of beauty and loveliness arose, and to start an objection, which is not completely destroyed by the elegant Jones in his dissertation on the gods of India, Greece, and Italy.

The origin of the Ionian Theogony may be very interesting to the classical antiquarian; but the generality of connoisseurs and literati are very well contented in simply beholding and admiring the inhabitants of Olympus, who have now taken a lasting residence in the splendid palace of the Louvre. Yet whether they sprang from correspondent deities in India and Egypt, or arose from the fervid imaginations of poets and the sober musings of philosophers, I have no doubt, that religion had the most powerful effect in sublimating the conceptions of the artist, who painted, or chiselled them. Each of them was supremely beautiful in some particular perfection, which however completely corresponded with their ordinary excellences or attributes. Some of the inferior intelligences were an exception to this rule, and perhaps so were Vulcan, and those, who were more ancient, than Jupiter. The Greeks had no idea of any being, in whom resided all possible superiority over other divinities. But their sys

tem of polytheism was composed of a variety of celestial natures, who were distinguished and adored for certain peculiar powers. Thus Jupiter was supposed to possess awful majesVol. II. No. 2.

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ty; Juno was the goddess of dignity; Venus was nothing but love; perfection of form reigned in Apollo, and Aglaia's motions were soft and beautiful, as those of the Heavenly Grace. Besides, the particular attributes of the divinities were enjoyed by all in a very enlarged degree. It never would have been a system of consonance, had it been otherwise. Hence Minerva disputed with Venus the prize of beauty; hence arose the jealousy of Juno; Hebe was sometimes thought the sweetest image of virgin loveliness, and Euphrosyne might contend with her sisters for the tints of youth, the charms of gracefulness, and easy undulations of

motion.

From this harmonious system of mythology it resulted, 'that the artists were facilitated in the conception and execution of their work. They were not deterred from painting or sculpture by the difficulty of embodying, or substantiating the awful attributes of infinity, eternity, and omniscience. They believed, that their deities occupied definite space, and might therefore afford a representation, limited by lines, angles, and curves. At the same time religion warmed their fancy in the contemplation of their peculiar perfections. Their imagination was not satisfied in beholding the harmonious proportions of Grecian form. They were continually panting after the loveliness of the celestials, Earth could not confine their conceptions. "L'ame des êtres pensans a le "desir naturel de se dégager de la matière, pour s'elancer "dans la sphère intellectuelle des idées ; et son vrai bonheur est depraduire des conceptions neuves et belles, La beau"té suprême réside en Dieu. L'idée de la beauté humaine "se perfectionne à raison de sa conformité et de son harmo "nie avec l' Etre suprême." Religion had informed the artists, that perfect beauty reigned only in heaven, and animated them to elevate their thoughts from the children of men to the immortal virgins of the skies, to the sister of Jupiter, to the queen of love, to Diana, pure, as the wild heath rose, and fresh, as the morning air. In these beings the artists could alone find that beauty, which the French call le beau

ideal. The soft climate of Greece had indeed fashioned to terrestrial excellence the form and features of Lais, Phryne, and other courtezans, but they gave no adequate representation of female divinity. Hence, as we learn from the Memorabilia of Xenophon, the Greeks were accustomed to unite the perfect parts of different beings, in order to constituté an imaginary whole. So when Leuxis was to paint a Helen to be a finished representation of the divine June for the temple of this goddess at Crotona, we are told in the beautiful narrative of Tully, that he chose for models five most lovely sisters of the youths, who had contended in the Palestra. The imagination of the workman presided over the execution. His hand was employed in uniting scattered parts of perfection, while his mind was fixed intently on the celestial personage, and acquiring from rapturous meditation a grace and a grandeur, which were to cover and finish the whole. These contemplations were durable and profound. They sometimes approached to reverie, if we may believe the artists themselves, as when Parrhasius boasted, that he had painted Hercules, as that hero had appeared to him, when he came in his divine nature; and I have read, that in the Anthologia Parmenio says, that Polycletus had formed the queen of heaven from the various figures, in which that goddess had presented herself to his senses. From such absorption of mind the most beautiful and dignified conceptions must have originated. The subject was sublime, the artist was to be honored, the picture was to be reverenced, and the statue was to be adored. These glorious effects could be produced only by the ardent processes of intellect. Poetry is analagous to her sister arts, and, as by glow of thought exerted on suitable subjects, Homer sung of the gods; as Ariosto exhibited his griffins; as Camoens called up the ancient spirit of the stormy cape; as Shakespeare gave to the elves " a local habi ❝tation and a name"; as Milton enraptures by his seraphs, or terrifies by his infernals; as Ossian points to the dim ghosts of the hill; as the Purana poets of Hindostan strangely unfold the mysterious incarnations of Brahma, and as Wie

land, that charming poet of fairy land, enchants all hearts by incantations, Oberon and the Queen; so, by sobriety of reason, conducted and elevated by holy, religious fancy, and in reciprocation by the transports of imagination, controlled by steadiness of judgment, and by joint operation of each intellectual power, exerted on the beauty or dignity of Divinity, Praxiteles sculptured the Venus of Cnidus; and Apelles painted the elder of the Graces; so Polycletus produced a sublime object of adoration in the majestic Juno of Argos. Phidias unfolded to the eyes of mortality the hallowed form of the Olympian Jupiter, the reverend father of the Gods, in towering loftiness and transcendental dignity. Such indeed was the force and effect of this mighty work, that Epictetus in Arrian, as quoted by Carlo Fea, calls the enthusiasm of the Greeks for this image, madness, when he says, “ Quæ "dementia est, ad Olympia proficisci vos, ut Phidia opus spectetis, 66 ac siquis ante obitum non viderit pro infortunato se ipsum rep"utare" and Quintillian in his Institutiones confers the noblest and most awful eulogy on this statue, " cujus pulchritu"do adjecisse aliquid etiam receptæ religioni videtur, adeo majes"tas operis Deum aquabat."

It is time to close this long letter, but the subject is far from being exhausted. I have said nothing on the religious purposes of the pictures and images; on the protection, afforded by the deities to those cities, which honored them with the most august representations. I have not touched on the low state of the fine arts among the Persians, which originated unquestionably from the nature of their mythology, so different from the Greek system. No mention has been made of the effect of Christianity on painting, so nobly evidenced in the Madonna and in the Saviour by Raphael, Corregio, Guido, and Leonardo da Vinci. Had I extended my disquisition to these topics, I might have strengthened my arguments, but perhaps I should not have augmented your knowledge, or your pleasure. But it is now dinner time, are waiting for me at Beauvillier's Hotel; and, while we are feasting on carp, and drinking mel

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low Burgundy, our pleasant sensations will be increased by , are rioting at Slaughter's on

the hope, that you, D

widgeon and cool port.

VISCONTI.

ORIGINAL MEMOIRS OF BENJAMIN, COUNT
OF RUMFORD ;

With some account of his writings, philosophical im-
provements, &c.

[Continued from page 44.]

To conceive great and splendid projects, and calcu

late the beneficial consequences, which are to be their results, is surely a testimony of a noble mind; but to conceive feasible ones, and against all opposition to execute them, and make all the parts of a complicated " establishment go on to"gether, and harmonize, like the parts of a piece of music in "full score," and completely effect the object of the institution, is certainly the most convincing evidence of genius. This seems to be the nature of Rumford's system, and the best commentary is found in the military work house at Munich. The same year, 1790, under Sir Benjamin's direction, the military academy was instituted. The design of this establishment is to call into active and useful life the dormant spark of genius, which would otherwise remain immured in obscurity and oblivion. Although it is called the military academy, military accomplishments are not alone taught. Every exercise, which can add to the education of the gentleman as well, as the soldier, is performed, so that it is a school of general education, where every science is studied, which fits them for gentlemen, for the study of any learned profes sion, or any civil or military employment.

As its object is expressly to call into activity" very extraordinary natural genius only," no distinction of classes, from

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