FIRST LECTURE.

as contained in the words * decere , pro dignitate , anddignej in the paffages of Tully, Quintilian, andPliny (o) ; they afcribe to impotence what was the for-bearance of judgment; Timanthes felt like a father:.he did not hide the face of Agamemnon, becaufe it wasbeyond the power of his art, not becaufe it was beyondthe pojfibility , but becaufe it was beyond the dignity of

expreffion,

(o) Cicero Oratore, 73, feq.—In alioque ponatur, aliudque totum fit, utrunidecere an oportere dicas; oportere e nim, perfectionem declarat officii, quo et fcm-•per utendum eft, et omnibus: decere, quafi aptum efle, confentaneumque tempori.& perform;; quod cum in factis ficpiffime, turn in dictis valet, in vultu denique,& geftu, et incefl'u. Contraque item dedecere. Quod fi poeta fugit, ut maximumvitium, qui peccat, etiam, cum probam orationem affingit improbo, ftultove fa-.pientis: fi denique pidtor ille vidit, cum immolanda Iphigenia triftis Calchas effet,mocftior Ulyifes, moercret Menelaus, obvolverdum caput Agamcmnonis efl'e,•quoniam fummum ilium lu&um penicillo non poffet imitari: fi denique hiftrio,quid dcccat quaerit: quid faciendum oratori putemus ?

M. F. Quintilianus, 1. ii. c. 14.—Operienda funt qusedam, five oftendi non.debent, five exprimi pro dignitate nonpoffimt: ut fecit Timanthes, ut opinor,Cithnius, in ea tabula qua Coloten tejum vicit. Nam cum in Iphigenia; immola-tione pinxilfet triftem Calchantem, triltiorem Ulyffem, addidiffet Menelao quernfummum poterat ars efficere Moerorem, confumptis affeclibus, non reperiens quodigne modo Patris vultum poflit exprimere, velavit ejus caput, et fui cuiqueanimo dedit ajftimandum.

It is evident to the flighted: confideration, that both Cicero and Quintilian lofefight of their premifes, and contradict themfelves in the motive they afcribe toTimanthes. Their want of acquaintance with the nature of plaflic expreffion madethem imagine the face of Agamemnon beyond the power of the artift. They werenot aware that by making him wafte expreffion on inferior aCtors at the expence of•■a principal one, they call him an improvident fpendthrift and not a wifececonomift.

From Valerius Maximus, who calls the fubject ‘ LuCluofum immolata Iphigenia;tfacrificium’ infiead of immolandee, little can be expeCted to the purpofe. Pliny,with the digne of Quintilian has the fame confufion of motive,