DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18732#0226
i 66 J
frown of a negro-driver, or the infclent air of any
unprincipled ruffian in power. Even in the highly
praifed Auguftus we look for nothing effentially
great, nothing fuperior to what we fee in thofe
minions of fortune, who are exalted, by a concur-
rence of incidents, to a fituation in life to which
their talents would never have ..ra'ifed them, and
which their characters never deferved. In the face
of Julius we expect to find the traces of deep re-
flection, magnanimity, and the anxiety natural to
the man who had overturned the liberties of his
native country, and who muff, have fecretly dreaded
the refentment of a fpirited people ; and in the face
of Marcus Brutus we look for independence, con-
fcious integrity, and a mind capable of the higheil
effort of virtue.
It is natural to regret, that, of the number of
antique ftatues which have come to us tolerably en-
tire, fo great a proportion are reprefentations of
gods and goddeffes. Had they been intended for
real perfons, we might have had a perfect knowledge
of the face and figure of the greateft part of the mofc
diftinguifhed citizens of ancient Greece and Rome.
A man of unrelaxing wifdom would /mile with con-
tempt, and afk, if our having perfect reprefentations
of all the heroes, poets, and philofophers recorded in
hiftory, would make us either more wife or more
learned ? to which I anfwer, That there are a great
many things, which neither can add to my fmall
ftcck of learning nor wifdom, and yet give me more
pleafure and fatisfaclion than thofe which do ; and,
unfortunately for mankind, the greateif, part of them
refemble me in this particular.
But
frown of a negro-driver, or the infclent air of any
unprincipled ruffian in power. Even in the highly
praifed Auguftus we look for nothing effentially
great, nothing fuperior to what we fee in thofe
minions of fortune, who are exalted, by a concur-
rence of incidents, to a fituation in life to which
their talents would never have ..ra'ifed them, and
which their characters never deferved. In the face
of Julius we expect to find the traces of deep re-
flection, magnanimity, and the anxiety natural to
the man who had overturned the liberties of his
native country, and who muff, have fecretly dreaded
the refentment of a fpirited people ; and in the face
of Marcus Brutus we look for independence, con-
fcious integrity, and a mind capable of the higheil
effort of virtue.
It is natural to regret, that, of the number of
antique ftatues which have come to us tolerably en-
tire, fo great a proportion are reprefentations of
gods and goddeffes. Had they been intended for
real perfons, we might have had a perfect knowledge
of the face and figure of the greateft part of the mofc
diftinguifhed citizens of ancient Greece and Rome.
A man of unrelaxing wifdom would /mile with con-
tempt, and afk, if our having perfect reprefentations
of all the heroes, poets, and philofophers recorded in
hiftory, would make us either more wife or more
learned ? to which I anfwer, That there are a great
many things, which neither can add to my fmall
ftcck of learning nor wifdom, and yet give me more
pleafure and fatisfaclion than thofe which do ; and,
unfortunately for mankind, the greateif, part of them
refemble me in this particular.
But