Memorandum on the subject of the Earl of Elgin's pursuits in Greece (London, 1811)

But words were inadequate to express with suffi-
cient energy the admiration which the ancients felt
for the style and character of the works of this
celebrated artist. They compared them to the style
òfThucydides and of Demosthenes. Yet the mascu-
line beauty pourtrayed by the hand of Phidias was
combined with sweetness, with elegance, and with
grace. Equally ingenious as he was ; sublime, he
executed great works with energy ; those the more
inferior, with simplicity and truth. î

." Artis Phidiaca; toreuma darum
" Pisces adspicis : adde aquam natabunt."

His style, which varied with his subject, was at
the same time grand and refined* If Phidias had
not applied all his powers to pourtray the slightest
shades, and the most delicate lines, he never would
have reached that expression of life, peculiarly his
own. His style was truly admirable, because it
" united the three characters of truth, grandeur,
and minute refinement."

Plutarch, in his Life of Pericles, tells us, that that
munificent and enlightened patron of the arts ap-
pointed Phidias the sole director of all his public
works. All the other artists, however eminent,

* E%acr« Tt xat [Aiyxhiïov xai a.nçtÇlç apa.—Demet. Plauti
»le Elèvent, cap. 14.