of form, the grandeur and simplicity of the figures, the richness
of the vegetation (though not luxuriant like that of a more southern
region), the precision of the outlines in the clear air and the beauty
of the colors in their transparency--so the enjoyment of nature is here
a purely artistic one, free from everything distracting. Everywhere else
the ideas of contrast appear and the enjoyment of nature is elegiac or
satiric. It is true that these sentiments exist only for us. To Horace,
Tibur seemed more modern than does Tivoli to us, as is proved by his
'Beatus ille qui procul negotiis,' but it is only an illusion to imagine
that we ourselves would like to be inhabitants of Athens or Rome. Only
in the distance, separated from everything common, only as a thing of
the past, must antiquity appear to us. This is the sentiment of a friend
and myself, at least, in regard to the ruins; we are always incensed
when a half sunken ruin is excavated; for this can only be a gain for
scholarship at the expense of the imagination. There are only two things
which inspire me with an equal horror: that the Campagna di Roma should
be built up, and that Rome should become a well policed city, in which
no man any longer carried a knife. Should such an order-loving Pope
appear--which may the seventy-two cardinals prevent--shall move
away. Only if such divine anarchy and such a heavenly wilderness remain
in Rome, is there place for the shadows, one of which is worth more than
the whole present race."

RAFAEL MENGS

But Winckelmann might have groped a long time among the multitudes of
antique survivals in search of the most valuable objects and those most
worthy of his observation, if good fortune had not immediately brought
him into contact with Mengs. The latter, whose own great talent was
enthralled by the ancient works of art and especially by such as were
beautiful, immediately introduced his friend to the most excellent--a
fact worthy of our attention. Here Winckelmann learned to recognize
beauty of form and its treatment, and was immediately inspired to
undertake a treatise, _Concerning the Taste of the Greek Artists_. But
one cannot go about studying works of art for any length of time
without discovering that they are the productions not only of different
artists but of different epochs, and that all investigations concerning
the place of their origin, their age, their individual merit must be
undertaken together. Winckelmann, wi