DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73712#0020
^ memoirs OR THE LIFE os
although allied to indolence, and distaste, the birth
of opulence. We have by much extended the su-
perfice of Sciences by rendering it more easy, but
in place of this we have tost much of the original
ardour and force. Patriotic zeal, and vehement
love for the arts, not like their leaders, inssamed
the minds of some of the antients; compared
with which ours is a chimera, a folly, a stupidity:
Ours is the custom to attempt much, arid to be pro-
found in nothing; to be superficially great, but cold
and feeble in the execution. Yet in spite of such
general relaxation, we fee, from time, to time,
that nature produces some men nervous, ardent,
and of a mind so organised as to be able to con-
front the universal corruption, and by force of
ftudy and incredible fatigue, rife toillustrate their
profeffions with all the ancient and true splendor.
The major part os their cotemporaries alone repay
them with the siain of extravagance, others with
envy; and the most who pique themselves on
bright and enlightened understanding, bestow on.
them a cold and steril admiration.
Anthony Raphael Mengs appeared to the
world to re-establish the arts. If the transmi-
gratioh could be admitted, one might say that
fome genius of Grece in its most ssorid Rate, had
transsused itself in him; Such was the profundity
of his ideas, the elevation of his invention, and
the simplicity and candour of his manners. A
ssave himself to the application of his profession
(which he enjoyed through life) he was an enemy
to those who were cold and unpassionate, and
although allied to indolence, and distaste, the birth
of opulence. We have by much extended the su-
perfice of Sciences by rendering it more easy, but
in place of this we have tost much of the original
ardour and force. Patriotic zeal, and vehement
love for the arts, not like their leaders, inssamed
the minds of some of the antients; compared
with which ours is a chimera, a folly, a stupidity:
Ours is the custom to attempt much, arid to be pro-
found in nothing; to be superficially great, but cold
and feeble in the execution. Yet in spite of such
general relaxation, we fee, from time, to time,
that nature produces some men nervous, ardent,
and of a mind so organised as to be able to con-
front the universal corruption, and by force of
ftudy and incredible fatigue, rife toillustrate their
profeffions with all the ancient and true splendor.
The major part os their cotemporaries alone repay
them with the siain of extravagance, others with
envy; and the most who pique themselves on
bright and enlightened understanding, bestow on.
them a cold and steril admiration.
Anthony Raphael Mengs appeared to the
world to re-establish the arts. If the transmi-
gratioh could be admitted, one might say that
fome genius of Grece in its most ssorid Rate, had
transsused itself in him; Such was the profundity
of his ideas, the elevation of his invention, and
the simplicity and candour of his manners. A
ssave himself to the application of his profession
(which he enjoyed through life) he was an enemy
to those who were cold and unpassionate, and