XX

lost tlie character impressed on them by their first teachers :their sculpture, at a very early period, far from hearing anyresemblance to the timid and lifeless productions of theEgyptian artists, was carried to the opposite extreme; allis energy, and spirit and nature are in a manner burlesqued,by distorted action and violent gesticulation. This entirechange was owing to the same active and enterprisingmind, which had enabled them still more rapidly to advancetheir poetry to perfection, and which arose probably fromtli e general freedom of their governments, and the constantcommunication between numerous independent states. Yet,even in Greece , there was a time in which sculptureunquestionably partook of that stiff columnar style, which,from the remotest antiquity, prevailed on the banks of theNile , unimproved and unchanged by succeeding ages. TheDaedalean statues, notwithstanding the exaggeration ofancient writers, appear to have been of this kind, and theexisting descriptions of the earliest representations of thedeities, with the imitations of these works still remainingto our times, place the resemblance beyond all doubt.Architecture too, although it quickly ceased to be solelyemployed in the erection of operose and tasteless fabrics,and became in the hands of the Greeks distinguished forpropriety, elegance, and grandeur, may yet be said to havebeen, in some measure, indebted to the practical endeavoursof this contemptible people.

In thus mentioning the obligations of Grecian architectureto the practice of Egypt , the statement must be understoodas limited to the mere mechanism of the art, and not as