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spectator of it prefer it to what is called pleasure, in which all is not pleasure. It is difficult to think that the head, though of the highest ideal beauty, is the head of Minerva, although the attributes and attitude of the lower part of the statue, certainly suggest that idea. The Greeks rarely in their representations of the Divinities' (unless we call the poetic enthusiasm of Apollo, a mortal passion) expressed the disturbance of human feeling; and here is deep and impassioned grief, animating a divine countenance. It is indeed divine, as Wisdom which as Minerva it may be supposed to emblem, pleading earnestly with Power, and invested with the expression of that grief because it must ever plead so vainly. An owl is sitting at her feet. The drapery of the statue, the gentle beauty of the feet and the grace of the attitude are what may be seen in many other statues belonging to that astonishing era which produced it ;— such a countenance is seen in few.

This statue happens to be placed on an altar, the subject of the reliefs of which are' in a spirit wholly the reverse. It was probably an altar to Bacchus, possibly a funerary urn. It has this inscription: D). M. M. ULPIUS. TERPNUS. FECIT. SIBI ET ULPIE SECUNDILLE LIBERTE. B. M." Under the festoons of fruits and flowers

at

the corners of the altar with the skulls of goats and in the middle with an inverted flower suspended from a

1 Medwin and Mrs. Shelley have instead of Divinities, the words characters of their Gods.

2 In former editions we read It

is, indeed, divine. Wisdom (which Minerva may be supposed to emblem,) is pleading &c.

3 This sentence was not given by Medwin and Mrs. Shelley.

4 In previous editions, a pedestal, the subject of whose reliefs is.

5 The sentence with the inscription was not given by Medwin and Mrs Shelley.

twisted stem are sculptured in moderate relief four1 figures of Mænads under the inspiration of the God. Nothing can be imagined more wild and terrible than their gestures, touching as they do upon the verge of distortion, in which their fine limbs and lovely forms are thrown. There is nothing however that exceeds the possibility of Nature, although it borders on its utmost line.

The tremendous spirit of superstition aided by drunkenness and producing something beyond insanity, seems to have caught them in its whirlwinds, and to bear them over the earth as the rapid volutions of a tempest bear the ever-changing trunk of a water-spout, as the torrent of a mountain river whirls the leaves in its full eddies. Their hair loose and floating seems caught in the tempest of their own tumultuous motion, their heads are thrown. back leaning with a strange inanity upon their necks, and looking up to Heaven, while they totter and stumble even in the energy of their tempestuous dance. Oneperhaps Agave with the head of Pentheus, has a human head in one hand and in the other a great knife; another has a spear with its pine cone, which was their thyrsus; another dances with mad voluptuousness; the fourth is dancing to a kind of tambourine.

1 In previous editions flowers that grace the pedestal, the corners of which are ornamented with the skulls of goats, are sculptured some figures &c. The filling of the blank with grace the pedestal is little calculated to inspire confidence in the genuineness of the text of Medwin.

2 In former editions, conceived. 3 Not have, as given by Medwin and Mrs. Shelley.

In former editions, whirls the

autumnal leaves resistlessly along in

&c.

Medwin and Mrs. Shelley read delirium instead of inanity.

6 In previous editions we read, One represents Agave with the head of Pentheus, and the words has a human head are left out.

7 In former editions, a second; in the next line, the Thyrsus; and in the next but one beating for dancing to.

This was indeed a monstrous superstition only capable of existing in Greece because there alone1 capable of combining ideal beauty and poetical and abstract enthusiasm with the wild errors from which it sprung. In Rome it had a more familiar, wicked and dry appearance-it was not suited to the severe and exact apprehensions of the Romans, and their strict morals once violated by it, sustained a deep injury little analogous to its effects upon the Greeks who turned all things, superstition, prejudice, murder, madness-to Beauty.

XXXV.

A TRIPOD.

Said to be dedicated to Mars-three winged figures with emblematic instruments.

XXXVI.

A FAUN.

A pretty thing but little remarkable.

A lynx is

slily peeping round the stem covered with vines on which he leans and gnawing the grapes.

XXXVII.

A GANYMEDE.

A statue of surpassing beauty. One of the Eagle's wings is half-enfolded round him and one of his arms is

1 In previous editions we read, a monstrous superstition, even in Greece, where it was alone, &c.

2 In Medwin's and Mrs. Shelley's editions, were violated by it, and sustained &c.

placed round the Eagle and his delicate hand lightly touches the wing; the other holds what I imagine to be a representation of the thunder. These hands and fingers are so delicate and light that it seems as if the spirit of pleasure, of light, life and beauty that lives in them half lifted them, and deprived them of the natural weight of mortal flesh. The roundness and fulness of the flowing. perfection of his form is strange and rare. The attitude and form of the legs and the relation borne to each other by his light and delicate feet is peculiarly beautiful. The calves of the legs almost touching each other, one foot is placed on the ground, a little advanced before the other which is raised, the knee being a little bent as those who are slightly, but slightly fatigued with standing. The face though innocent and pretty has no ideal beauty. It expresses inexperience and gentleness and innocent wonder, such as might be imagined in a rude and lovely shepherd-boy and no more.

XXXVIII.

A VENUS.

A beautiful Venus, sculptured with great accuracy but without the feeling and the soft and flowing proportions of the Anadyomene. It has great perfection and beauty of form; it is a most admirable piece of sculpture, but hard, angular and with little of the lithe suppleness or light of life.

XXXIX.

A TORSO OF FAUNUS.

(Why I don't know.) The sculpture remarkably good.

PROSE.-VOL. III.

XL.

TWO STATUES OF MARSYAS.

Two of those hideous St. Sebastians' of Antiquity opposite each other, Marsyas: one looks as if he had been flayed, and the other as if he was going to be flayed. This is one of the few abominations of the Greek religion. This is as bad as the everlasting damnation and hacking and hewing between them of Joshua and Jehovah. And is it possible that there existed in the same imagination the idea of that tender and sublime and poetic and lifegiving Apollo and of the author of this deed as the same person?? It would be worse than confounding Jehovah and Jesus in the same Trinity, which to those who believe in the divinity of the latter is a pretty piece of blasphemy in any intelligible sense of the word. As to the sculpture of these pieces, it is energetic, especially that of the one already flayed, and moderate. If he knew as much as the moderns about anatomy, which I hope to God he did not, he, at least, abstained from taking advantage of his subject for making the same absurd display of it. These great artists abstained from overstepping in this particular, except in some cases, as perhaps in the Laocoon, what Shakespeare calls the modesty of nature.

1 Shelley was not, it would seem, as familiar with the history of the Christian Martyrs as with the mythology of the Greeks, or he would of course have written "Two of those hideous St. Bartholomews." One would think, however, that he must have seen so many pictures in Italy of both martyrdoms that, even if he did not, as he would not, study them much, the slip in

this case could scarcely be other than a slip of the pen.

2 Students of mythology will doubtless answer No. This variable and contradictory creation was the offspring of many imaginations; and no single imagination worth the name mixed up these two particular conceptions as an article of religious belief.

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