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

54

ANCIENT ABT,

reverence towards this deity. No wonder then
that the expert artist was held to be inspired of
the gods, as narrated to us expressly concerning
Phidias.1

" Then nature form'd for Love's embrace,
The earth in brighter glory trod ;
All was enchanted ground, each trace
The footstep of a God."

Schiller's Gods of Greece?

But an anthropomorphic belief, religious venera-
tion, enthusiasm, patriotism, or the other qualities
we have been considering, however conducive they
may have been to the perfection of Greek art, are
worth nothing unless guided by Wisdom. Minerva
reigned supreme at Athens. All classes acknow-
ledged her authority. It was not by the individual
exertions of any one class that it raised itself to
perfection, but by its harmonious relations with the
rest. All the conditions of life were regulated by
one principle—the unity of wisdom, goodness, and

1 The same sentiment is expressed also in an epigram,—

" Say, Phidias, did the god come down to thee ?
Or didst thou mount to heaven his form to see ? "

2 This poetical translation is by Patterson: the original runs
thus:—

" An der Liebe Busen sie zu driicken,
Gab man hohem Adel der Natur;
Alles wies den eingeweihten Blicken,
Alles eines Gottes Spur."

Die Goiter Grieehenlunds.