those who feel the value of this
collection should pay a tribute of thanks to the nobleman to whose
exertions the nation is indebted for it; and the more so as he was
made the object of vulgar abuse by many pretended admirers of ancient
learning. If Lord Elgin had not removed these marbles, there is no
doubt that many of them would long since have been totally destroyed;
and it was only after great hesitation, and a certain knowledge that
they were daily suffering more and more from brutal ignorance and
barbarism, that he could prevail on himself to employ the power he had
obtained to remove them to England. These marbles may be considered in
two ways; first, as mere specimens of sculpture; and secondly, as
forming part of the history of a people. As specimens of sculpture
they serve as excellent studies to young artists, whose taste is
formed and chastened by the simplicity and truth of the models
presented to them. The advantage of studying the ancients in this
department of art rests pretty nearly on the same grounds as those
which may be given for our study of their written models. Modern times
produce excellence in every department of human industry, and our
knowledge of nature, the result of continued accumulations, needs not
now the limited experience of former ages. The sciences founded on
demonstration, though they may trace their origin to the writings of
the Greeks, have advanced to a state in which nothing would be gained
by constantly recurring to the ancient condition of knowledge. But it
is not so with those arts which belong to the province of design; they
require a different discipline, and the faculties which they employ
may have received a more complete development two thousand years ago,
under favourable circumstances, than they have now. Their perfection
depends on circumstances over which we have little control: they
cannot, in our opinion, ever become essentially popular in any country
but one where the climate favours an out-of-door life, and where they
are intimately blended in the service of religion. If then a nation
has existed whose physical organisation, whose climate, and whose
religion all combined to develop the principles of beauty, and taught
man to choose from nature those forms and combinations which give the
highest and most lasting pleasure, we of the present day who do not
possess these advantages must follow those who were the first true
interpreters of nature. Their models posses