ppose, executed on some noble Greek type, too noble
to allow any modest Modern to think of improving upon it. But whether
executed on a Greek type or no, it is to be presumed that, as there are
sixty-six of them alike, and on so important a building as that which is
to contain your school of design, and which is the principal example of
the Athenian style in modern Athens, there must be something especially
admirable in them, and deserving your most attentive contemplation. In
order, therefore, that you might have a fair opportunity of estimating
their beauty, I was desirous of getting a sketch of a real lion's head
to compare with them, and my friend Mr. Millais kindly offered to draw
both the one and the other for me. You have not, however, at present, a
lion in your zoological collection; and it being, as you are probably
aware, the first principle of Pre-Raphaelitism, as well as essential to
my object in the present instance, that no drawing should be made except
from Nature itself, I was obliged to be content with a tiger's head,
which, however, will answer my purpose just as well, in enabling you to
compare a piece of true, faithful, and natural work with modern
architectural sculpture. Here, in the first place, is Mr. Millais'
drawing from the _living_ beast (_fig._ 17, frontispiece). I have not
the least fear but that you will at once acknowledge its truth and feel
its power. Prepare yourselves next for the Grecian sublimity of the
_ideal_ beast, from the cornice of your schools of design. Behold it
(_fig._ 18).

43. Now we call ourselves civilized and refined in matters of art, but I
assure you it is seldom that, in the very basest and coarsest grotesques
of the inferior Gothic workmen, anything so contemptible as this head
can be ever found. _They_ only sink into such a failure accidentally,
and in a single instance; and we, in our civilization, repeat this noble
piece of work threescore and six times over, as not being able to invent
anything else so good! Do not think Mr. Millais has caricatured it. It
is drawn with the strictest fidelity; photograph one of the heads
to-morrow, and you will find the photograph tell you the same tale.
Neither imagine that this is an unusual example of modern work. Your
banks and public offices are covered with ideal lions' heads in every
direction, and you will find them all just as bad as this. And, farther,
note that the admission of such barbarous types of sculpture is not