er in other things, despise those
lower lures, too powerful in our country, and aim only at excellence
in the expression of thought. Among these I may mention Story and
Mozier. Story has made in Florence the model for a statue of his
father. This I have not seen, but two statuettes that he modelled
here from the "Fisher" of Goethe pleased me extremely. The languid,
meditative reverie of the boy, the morbid tenderness of his nature, is
most happily expressed in the first, as is the fascinated surrender to
the siren murmur of tire flood in the second. He has taken the moment

"Half drew she him; half sank he in," &c.

I hope some one will give him an order to make them in marble. Mozier
seemed to have an immediate success. The fidelity and spirit of his
portrait-busts could be appreciated by every one; for an ideal head of
Pocahontas, too, he had at once orders for many copies. It was not
an Indian head, but, in the union of sweetness and strength with a
princelike, childlike dignity, very happily expressive of his idea of
her character. I think he has modelled a Rebecca at the Well, but this
I did not see.

These have already a firm hold on the affections of our people; every
American who comes to Italy visits their studios, and speaks of them
with pride, as indeed they well may, in comparing them with artists of
other nations. It will not be long before you see Greenough's group;
it is in spirit a pendant to Cooper's novels. I confess I wish he
had availed himself of the opportunity to immortalize the real noble
Indian in marble. This is only the man of the woods,--no Metamora, no
Uncas. But the group should be very instructive to our people.

You seem as crazy about Powers's Greek Slave as the Florentines were
about Cimabue's Madonnas, in which we still see the spark of genius,
but not fanned to its full flame. If your enthusiasm be as genuine as
that of the lively Florentines, we will not quarrel with it; but I
am afraid a great part is drawing-room rapture and newspaper echo.
Genuine enthusiasm, however crude the state of mind from which it
springs, always elevates, always educates; but in the same proportion
talking and writing for effect stultifies and debases. I shall not
judge the adorers of the Greek Slave, but only observe, that they have
not kept in reserve any higher admiration for works even now extant,
which are, in comparison with that statue, what that statue is
compared with any weeping marble on a