Spence, Joseph; Tindal, Nicholas [Editor]; Dodsley, James [Oth.]: A Guide To Classical Learning: Or, Polymetis Abridged: Containing, I. By Way of Introduction, the Characters of the Latin Poets and their Work ... II. An Inquiry concerning the Agreement between the Works of the Roman Poets and the Remains of the Antient Artists ... Being a Work absolutely necessary, not only for the Right Understanding of the Classics, but also for forming in Young Minds a True Taste for the Beauties of Poetry, Sculpture, and Painting (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1786)

£ ]
est and ahnost only assistance we ca® have ; sor
how fliould we at all understand the greater part
of the remains of the antient artists, if it Were
not for what we are told by the antient authors ?
This would hold very osten as to Angle sigures,
but it is much stronger as to groupes and histori-
cal or fabulous pieces, whether in paintings, in
marble, or in gems. In that fine groupe, for in-
stance, now in the Belvedere, (which has been
called the noblest work of art in the world) we
fliould be. struck with the beauty of the design,
and the expression of pain in the father; of dread
in one of the sons, and the languishment in the
other ; but we fliould not know it to be Laocoon
without the help os what Virgil and one or two
more of the Latin poets have said on that subjedt.
A thousand instances might be given os the same
nature, but the case is too clear to need any
more.
What has been said. of the mutual use of the re-
mains of the old artists and the classic writers, to-
wards explaining one another, is meant in ge-
neral, and on any subjedt, whether relating to
their religion, thest history, their arts, or man-
ners of living; in ssiort, to every thing known or
pradtised among them; and so would include
all their authors .too, indifferently, whether in
prose or in verse. The present inquiry is not so
extensive; for it is confined only to such things
as relate to the allegorical beings received among
C . the