Falkener, Edward: Daedalus or the causes and principles of the excellence of Greek sculpture (London, 1860)

USE OF ABT.

29

it kindles in ns at once an attractive principle ; it
forms our manners, and influences our desires ;
not only when represented in a living example,
but even in an historical description."1 Plato
observes, that seeing each day, and being sur-
rounded by the masterpieces of painting, sculpture,
and architecture, full of nobleness and correct
taste, those who are least inclined to the graceful
by nature, will acquire a taste for what is beautiful,
decent, and delicate. They will accustom them-
selves to seize with just discernment what is perfect
or defective in the works of art or nature, and this
happy exercise of their judgment will become a
habitude of their soul. Admiration of works of art
is the necessary result of a cultivated mind. It
might be supposed that a work of beauty is beau-
tiful to all: but this is not so. An ignorant man
is more likely to be attracted by a rude and vulgar •
reality, than by a work of studied elegance. He
approves, with loud delight, of the ship's figure-
head, coloured to exact identity, in the same manner
that he gazes with wondering admiration at the

of their ancestors in the first part of the house, (the atrium)
that their descendants might not only read of their -virtues, but
imitate them ; so that the portraits of their ancestors might
invoke the good to yet nobler deeds, and at the same time reprove
those who dishonoured their name. — Val. Max. v. 8, § 3. See
Juveual, Sat. viii.

1 Plutarch, Life of Pericles.