imitated as often, without once having had juftice done them, would be equally vain and fuperfluous. I confine myself to a very few obfervations. The moft infenfible of mankind must be ftruck with horror at fight of the Laocoon. On one of my vifits to the Vatican, I was accompanied by two perfons, who had never been there before: one of them is accused of being perfectly callous to every thing which does not immediately touch his own perfon; the other is a worthy, good man: the worft, after flaring for fome time with marks of terror at the groupe, at length recovered himself; exclaiming with a laugh,-" Egad, I was "afraid thefe d-d ferpents would have "left the fellows they are devouring, and "made a fnap at me; but I am happy to "recolle they are of marble."——“ I "thank you, Sir, moft heartily," faid the "other, "for putting me in mind of tha "circumftance: till you mentioned it, I was "in agony for thofe two youths."

Nothing can be conceived more admirably executed than this effecting groupe in all probability, it never would have en

tered into my own head that it could have been in any refpect improved. But when I first had the happiness of becoming acquainted with Mr. Lock, a period of my life which I fhall always recollect with peculiar pleafure, I remember my converfing with him upon this fubject; and that Gentleman, after mentioning the execution of this piece in the higheft terms of praise, obferved that, had the figure of Laocoon been alone, it would have been perfect. As

a

man fuffering the most excruciating bodily pain with becoming fortitude, it admits of no improvement; his proportions, his form, his action, his expreffion, are exquifite. But when his fons appear, he is no longer an infulated, fuffering individual, who, when he has met pain and death with dignity, has done all that could be expected from man; he commences father, and a much wider field is opened to the artist. We expect the deepest pathos in the exhibition of the fublimeft character that art can offer to the contemplation of the human mind: A father forgetting pain, and inftant death, to fave his children. The

Sublime and Pathetic the artist either did not fee, or defpaired of attaining. Laocoon's fufferings are merely corporal; he is deaf to the cries of his agonizing children, who are calling on him for affiftance. But had he been throwing a look of anguifh upon his fons, had he feemed to have forgotten his own fufferings in theirs, he would have commanded the fympathy of the fpectator in a much higher degree. On the whole, Mr. Lock was of opinion, that the execution of this groupe is perfect, but that the conception is not equal to the execution. I fhall leave it to others to decide whether Mr. Lock, in thefe obfervations, fpoke like a man of taste : I am fure he fpoke like a father. I have fenfibility to feel the beauty and juftness of the remark, though I had not the ingenuity to make it.

It is difputed whether this groupe was formed from Virgil's defeription of the death of Laocoon and his fons, or the defcription made from the groupe; it is evident, from their minute refemblance, that one or other must have been the cafe. The Poet mentions a circumftance, which could

not be represented by the sculptor; he says that, although every other perfon around fought fafety by flight, the father was attacked by the ferpents, while he was advancing to the affiftance of his fons

-Auxilio fubeuntem ac tela ferentem.*

This deficiency in the fculptor's art would have been finely fupplied by the improvement which Mr. Lock propofed.

Reflecting on the dreadful condition of three perfons entangled in the horrid twinings of ferpents, and after contemplating the varied anguish so strongly expressed in their countenances, it is a relief to turn the eye to the heavenly figure of the Apollo. To form an adequate idea of the beauty of this ftatue, it is abfolutely neceffary to fee it. With all the advantages of colour and life, the human form never appeared fo beautiful; and we never can fufficiently admire the artift, who has endowed marble with a finer expreffion of grace, dignity,

*The wretched father running to their aid With pious haste, but vain, they next invade.

DRYDEN.

and understanding, than ever were seen in living features. In the forming of this inimitable figure, the artist seems to have wrought after an ideal form of beauty, fuperior to any in nature, and which existed only in his own imagination.

The admired ftatue of Antinous is in the fame Court. Nothing can be more light, elegant, and easy; the proportions are exact, and the execution perfect. It is an exquifite reprefentation of the most beautiful youth that ever lived.

The ftatue of Apollo reprefents fomething fuperior, and the emotions it excites are all of the fublime caft.

LETTER XLVIII.

Rome.

THE prefent Pope, who has affumed the

name of Pius the Sixth, is a tall, wellmade man, about fixty years of age, but re