a ftrong degree, to fee celebrated men, those whose talents and great qualities can alone render the prefent age an interesting object to pofterity, and prevent its being loft, like the dark ages which fucceeded the deftruction of the Roman empire, in the oblivious vortex of time, leaving scarcely a rack behind. The durable monuments raised to fame by the infpiring genius of Pitt, and the invincible fpirit of Frederick, will command the admiration of future ages, outlive the power of the empires which they aggrandized, and forbid the period in which they flourished, from ever paffing away like the bafelefs fabric of a vifion. The bufts and ftatues of thofe memorable men will be viewed, by fucceeding generations, with the fame regard and attention which we now bestow on those of Cicero and Cæfar. expect to find something peculiarly noble and expreffive in features which were animated, and which, we imagine, must

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have been in fome degree modelled, by the fentiments of thofe to whom they belonged. It is not rank, it is character alone which interefts pofterity. We know that men may be feated on thrones, who would have been placed more fuitably to their talents on the working-table of a taylor; we therefore give little attention to the bufts or coins of the vulgar emperors. In the countenance of Claudius, we expect nothing more noble than the phlegmatic tranquillity of an acquiefcing cuckold; in Caligula or Nero, the unrelenting frown of a negro-driver, or the infolent air of an unprincipled ruffian in power. Even in the high-praised Auguftus we look for nothing effentially great, nothing fuperior to what we fee in those minions of fortune, who are exalted, by a concurrence of incidents, to a fituation in life to which their talents would never have raised them, and which their characters never deferved. In the face of Julius

we expect to find the traces of deep reflection, magnanimity, and the anxiety natural to the man who had overturned the liberties of his native country, and who must have fecretly dreaded the refentment of a spirited people; and in the face of Marcus Brutus we look for independence, conscious integrity, and a mind capable of the higheft effort of virtue.

It is natural to regret, that, of the number of antique ftatues which have come to us tolerably entire, fo great a proportion are reprefentations of gods and goddeffes. Had they been intended for real perfons, we might have had a perfect knowledge of the face and figure of the greatest part of the moft diftinguished citizens of ancient Greece and Rome. A man of unrelaxing wifdom would fmile with contempt, and ask, if our having perfect reprefentations of all the heroes, poets, and philofophers recorded

in history, would make us either wifer or more learned? to which I anfwer, That there are a great many things, which neither can add to my fmall ftock of learning nor wisdom, and yet give me more pleasure and fatisfaction than those which do; and, unfortunately for mankind, the greatest part of them refemble me in this particular.

But though I would with pleasure have given up a great number of the Jupiters and Apollos and Venuses, whofe ftatues we have, in exchange for an equal, or even a fmaller, number of mere mortals whom I could name; I by no means confider the ftatues of thofe deities as uninterefting. Though they are imaginary beings, yet each of them has a diftinct character of his own of claffical authority, which has long been impreffed on our memories; and we affume the right of deciding on the artist's skill, and applaud

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ing or blaming, as he has fucceeded or failed in expreffing the established character of the god intended. From the ancient artifts having exercised their genius in forming the images of an order of beings fuperior to mankind, another and a greater advantage is fuppofed to have followed; it prompted the artists to attempt the uniting, in one form, the various beauties and excellencies which nature had difperfed in many. This was not so easy a task as may by fome be imagined; for that which has a fine effect in one particular face or perfon, may appear a deformity when combined with a different complexion, different features, or a different shape. It therefore required great judgment and tafte to collect those various graces, and combine them with elegance and truth; and repeated efforts of this kind are imagined to have inspired fome of the ancient fculptors with fublimer ideas of beauty than nature herself ever

exhibited,