expression at his command. He is compelled to be a poet,
whatever he may think, whether he wishes or not.

ATTAINED INSIGHT

As much value as Winckelmann placed upon the world's esteem, as much as
he desired a literary reputation, as much as he endeavored to present
his work in the best form and to elevate it by a certain dignified
style, he was nevertheless in no wise blind to its faults, but rather
was the first to observe them, as one would expect from a man of his
progressive nature, always seizing upon and working over new materials.
The more he had labored upon a subject, dogmatically and didactically,
had maintained and established this or that interpretation of a
monument, this or that explanation or application of a passage, the more
conspicuous did his own mistakes seem to him. As soon as he had
convinced himself of them by new data, the more quickly was he inclined
to correct them in any way possible.

If the manuscript was at hand, it was rewritten; if it had been sent to
the printer, corrections and additions were appended. Of all this
penance he made no secret to his friends, for his character was based
upon truth, straight-forwardness, frankness, and honesty.

LATER WORKS

A happy thought became clear to him, not suddenly but as the work
progressed--we mean his _Monumenti Inediti_. It is quite evident that he
was at first tempted by his desire to make new subjects known, to
explain them in a happy manner and to enlarge the study of antiquity to
the greatest possible extent; added to this was the interest of testing
the method once set forth in his history of art, by means of objects
which he laid before the eyes of the reader. For he had finally
developed the felicitous resolve, in this preliminary treatise, quietly
to correct, purify, compress, and perhaps even partly supplant, his
already completed work on the history of art.

Conscious of former mistakes which people who were not inhabitants of
Rome could scarcely have reproached him with, he wrote a work in the
Italian language, which he intended should be appreciated in Rome
itself. Not only did he devote to it the greatest attention, but he also
selected friendly connoisseurs with whom he carefully went over the
work, most cleverly using their insight and judgment, and thus created a
work which will go down as a heritage for all ages. Not only did he
write it, but he undertook its publication, achieving, as a poor layman,
that which would do