an any one original; and what
may seem a paradox, he learns to design naturally by drawing his figures
unlike to any one object. This idea of the perfect state of nature,
which the artist calls the ideal beauty, is the great leading principle
by which works of genius are conducted. By this Phidias acquired his
fame. He wrought upon a sober principle what has so much excited the
enthusiasm of the world; and by this method you, who have courage to
tread the same path, may acquire equal reputation.

This is the idea which has acquired, and which seems to have a right to
the epithet of Divine; as it may be said to preside, like a supreme
judge, over all the productions of nature; appearing to be possessed of
the will and intention of the Creator, as far as they regard the external
form of living beings.

When a man once possesses this idea in its perfection, there is no danger
but that he will he sufficiently warmed by it himself, and be able to
warm and ravish every one else.

Thus it is from a reiterated experience, and a close comparison of the
objects in nature, that an artist becomes possessed of the idea of that
central form, if I may so express it, from which every deviation is
deformity. But the investigation of this form I grant is painful, and I
know but of one method of shortening the road; this is, by a careful
study of the works of the ancient sculptors; who, being indefatigable in
the school of nature, have left models of that perfect form behind them,
which an artist would prefer as supremely beautiful, who had spent his
whole life in that single contemplation. But if industry carried them
thus far, may not you also hope for the same reward from the same labour?
We have the same school opened to us that was opened to them; for nature
denies her instructions to none who desire to become her pupils.

To the principle I have laid down, that the idea of beauty in each
species of beings is invariably one, it may be objected that in every
particular species there are various central forms, which are separate
and distinct from each other, and yet are undeniably beautiful; that in
the human figure, for instance, the beauty of the Hercules is one, of the
gladiator another, of the Apollo another, which makes so many different
ideas of beauty.

It is true, indeed, that these figures are each perfect in their kind,
though of different characters and proportions; but still none of them is
the representation of a