DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.870#0019
9
vindication of their removal from those degraded regions, where they might be truly said " to waste
their sweetness in the desert air."
Unrivalled either in ancient or modern times, and coeval with those great philosophers and
poets whose admirable works have stood the test of ages, they present evidence incontrovertible that
the records which have been handed down of Athenian greatness were neither false in substance
nor exaggerated in the detail. Who, indeed, can survey these matchless specimens of human talent
without being lost in admiration, mingled with that sublime emotion which must naturally arise on
reflecting that two thousand years have passed away since they were conceived in the mind and
fashioned by the hand?
Here may the pride and self sufficiency of modern times bow to the silent but impressive
admonition, that the great original plan of nature has prescribed limits to terrestrial grandeur,
that the most exalted states have perished by the inevitable process of self decay, and that our
present boasted attainments are but feeble coruscations of light succeeding a long and humiliating
eclipse of the human understanding.
This melancholy lesson, however, whilst it mortifies our vanity, should not depress that
reasonable ambition which is the necessary stimulus to exertion, nor should the consciousness of
inability to equal the works of our predecessors, deter us from endeavouring to excel those of our
cotemporaries. But the basis of improvement in the present state of art in this country must
depend on a corresponding improvement in the public taste; and it is by the constant contemplation
and study of those works only which are truly excellent that the judgment can accruire sound
principles for its government and direction. How unreasonable would be the idea, that a clown
--------- —.... i —
vindication of their removal from those degraded regions, where they might be truly said " to waste
their sweetness in the desert air."
Unrivalled either in ancient or modern times, and coeval with those great philosophers and
poets whose admirable works have stood the test of ages, they present evidence incontrovertible that
the records which have been handed down of Athenian greatness were neither false in substance
nor exaggerated in the detail. Who, indeed, can survey these matchless specimens of human talent
without being lost in admiration, mingled with that sublime emotion which must naturally arise on
reflecting that two thousand years have passed away since they were conceived in the mind and
fashioned by the hand?
Here may the pride and self sufficiency of modern times bow to the silent but impressive
admonition, that the great original plan of nature has prescribed limits to terrestrial grandeur,
that the most exalted states have perished by the inevitable process of self decay, and that our
present boasted attainments are but feeble coruscations of light succeeding a long and humiliating
eclipse of the human understanding.
This melancholy lesson, however, whilst it mortifies our vanity, should not depress that
reasonable ambition which is the necessary stimulus to exertion, nor should the consciousness of
inability to equal the works of our predecessors, deter us from endeavouring to excel those of our
cotemporaries. But the basis of improvement in the present state of art in this country must
depend on a corresponding improvement in the public taste; and it is by the constant contemplation
and study of those works only which are truly excellent that the judgment can accruire sound
principles for its government and direction. How unreasonable would be the idea, that a clown
--------- —.... i —