22

FIRST LECTURE.

moves-what is inferior, beyond which what is porteir*tous. From the head conclude to the proportions ofthe neck, the limbs, the extremities; from the fatherto the race of gods; all, the fons of one, Jupiter;derived from one fource of tradition, Homer ; formedby one artift, Phidias : on him meafured and decided byParrhalius. In the fimplicity of this principle, adheredto by the fucceeding periods, lies the uninterrupted pro-grefs and the unattainable fuperiority of Grecian art.With this prerogative, which evidently implies a pro-found as well as general knowledge of the parts, howare we to reconcile the criticifm paffed on the interme-diate parts of his forms as inferior to their outline ? orho w could Winkelmann, in contradiftion with his ownprinciples, explain it, by a want of anatomic know-ledge (k) ? how is it poflible to fuppofe that he whodecided his outline with fuch intelligence that it ap-peared ambient, and pronounced the parts that efcapedthe eye, fhould have been uninformed of its contents ?let us rather fuppofe that the defeat afcribed to the inter-mediate forms of his bodies, if fuch a fault there was,conlifted in an affe&ation of fmoothnefs bordering on

infipidity,

(k) In lineis extremis palmam adeptus - minor tamen videtur, fibi com-paratus, in mediis corporibus exprimendis. Pliny , xxxv. 10. Here we find theinferiority of the middle parts merely relative to himfelf. Compared with himfelf,Parrhalius was not all equal.