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

150

ANCIENT AET.

can wc wonder at the careful statements of Callis-
tratus and other writers of antiquity being set aside ?
Is it reasonable to reject testimony so invariable,
so agreeing, and coming from different writers, and
this not because we have counter-evidence from
other writers of equal antiquity and standing, but
merely because it does not tally with our precon-
ceived opinions ? To act thus, is to imitate a
child, who disregards facts and insists upon his
own opinion. Truth and reason are set aside,
beauty and taste are disregarded, merely because
we will have it so. Do we find Phidias calling' in
the assistance of Panamus, and Praxiteles that of
Nicias — are the works described, and the artists
designated by name—all this is set aside as nothing
to the purpose, simply because it is inconvenient to
admit it, simply because—let the fault be where it
may-—ancient taste is not the same as modern
taste.

We have seen how the word circumlitio has been
twisted by different writers, so as to mean anything
but what it really does signify: and so we may be

Greeks in the earliest times, and even in the age of Pericles. No
doubt all the Grecian temples were ornamented in the same
manner, and the painting was certainly coeval with the buildings
themselves, as it is always executed with the highest finish, and
the greatest elegance, corresponding with the sculptured parts."
Dodwell's Travels, i. 342.

Baron Stackelberg, who has devoted much attention to this
subject, thus writes:—"Die Budrier- und Malerkunst seit den