8

FIRST LECTURE.

merits and conftitution; this, with their climate , whichallowed that form to grow, and to Ihew itfelf to thegreateft advantage ; with their civil and political inftitu-tions, which eftablifhed and encouraged exercife> andmanners bell calculated to develop its powers; andabove all that Simplicity of their end, that uniformityof purfuit which in all its derivations retraced the greatprinciple from which it fprang, and like a central ftamendrew it out into one immenfe conne&ed web of congenialimitation ; thefe, I fay, are the reafons why the Greekscarried the art to a height which no fubfequent time orrace has been able to rival or even to approach.

Great as thefe advantages were, it is not to be fup-pofed that Nature deviated from her gradual progrefs inthe development of human faculties, in favour of theGreeks. Greek Art had her infancy, but the Gracesrocked the cradle, and Love taught her to fpeak. Ifever legend deferved our belief, the amorous tale of theCorinthian maid, who traced the fhade of her depart-ing lover by the fecret lamp, appeals to our fympathy,to grant it; and leads us at the fame time to fome ob-fervations on the firft mechanical elfays of Painting , andthat linear method which, though palled nearly unno-ticed by Winkelmann> feems to have continued as the

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