FIRST LECTURE.
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Parrhafius, during a period of more or lefs difputedolympiads, to the appearance of Apollodorus the Athenian,who applied the effential principles of Polygnotus to thedelineation of the fpecies, by inveftigating the leadingforms that difcriminate the various claffes of humanqualities and paflions. The acutenefs of his tafte ledhim to difcover that as all men were connected by onegeneral form, fo they were feparated each by fornepredominan t power, which fixed charader and bound themto a clafs : that in proportion as this fpecific powerpartook of individual peculiarities, the farther it wasremoved from a fhare in that harmonious fyftem whichconftitutes nature, and confifts in a due balance of all itsparts: thence he drew his line of imitation, and perfo-nified the central form of the clafs, to which his objedbelonged ; and to which the reft of its qualities admini-ftered without being abforbed : agility was not fufieredto deftroy firmnefs, folidity or weight; nor ftrength andweight agility ; elegance did not degenerate to effemi-nacy, or grandeur fwell to hugenefs ; fuch were hisprinciples of ftyle : his exprefilon extended them tothe mind, if we may judge from the two fubjedsmentioned by Pliny , in which he feems to have per-fonified the charaders of devotion and impiety;that , in the adoring figure of a prieft, perhaps ofChryfes, expanding his gratitude at the flirine of the