common monument.

I consider the Slave as a form of simple and sweet beauty, but that
neither as an ideal expression nor a specimen of plastic power is it
transcendent. Powers stands far higher in his busts than in any ideal
statue. His conception of what is individual in character is clear
and just, his power of execution almost unrivalled; but he has had a
lifetime of discipline for the bust, while his studies on the human
body are comparatively limited; nor is his treatment of it free and
masterly. To me, his conception of subject is not striking: I do not
consider him rich in artistic thought.

He, no less than Greenough and Crawford, would feel it a rich reward
for many labors, and a happy climax to their honors, to make an
equestrian statue of Washington for our country. I wish they might all
do it, as each would show a different kind of excellence. To present
the man on horseback, the wise centaur, the tamer of horses, may well
be deemed a high achievement of modern, as it was of ancient art. The
study of the anatomy and action of the horse, so rich in suggestions,
is naturally most desirable to the artist; happy he who, obliged
by the brevity of life and the limitations of fortune, to make his
studies conform to his "orders," finds himself justified by a national
behest in entering on this department.

At home one gets callous about the character of Washington, from a
long experience of Fourth of July bombast in his praise. But seeing
the struggles of other nations, and the deficiencies of the leaders
who try to sustain them, the heart is again stimulated, and puts forth
buds of praise. One appreciates the wonderful combination of events
and influences that gave our independence so healthy a birth, and the
almost miraculous merits of the men who tended its first motions. In
the combination of excellences needed at such a period with the purity
and modesty which dignify the private man in the humblest station,
Washington as yet stands alone. No country has ever had such a good
future; no other is so happy as to have a pattern of spotless worth
which will remain in her latest day venerable as now.

Surely, then, that form should be immortalized in material solid as
its fame; and, happily for the artist, that form was of natural beauty
and dignity, and he who places him on horseback simply represents his
habitual existence. Everything concurs to make an equestrian statue of
Washington desirable.

The dignifi