The reader may poffibly recollect, from our late account of Mr. Sharp's letters, that with regard to the heroism of the modern Romans, the Pretender is of the fame opinion with Mr. Winckelmann.

In the next fubdivifion of the famé fection, he treats particularly of the capacity of the English for Arts, to the following effect:

The extraordinary talents of the Greeks for the fine arts now actually exift in the finest provinces of Italy. Imagination is, as it were, the element of these talents. This brilliant imagination is characteristic of the Italian, as judgement is of an Englishman. It is a juft obfervation, that the poets beyond the Alps fpeak figuratively but without painting. One cannot help acknowledging that the ftrange and fometimes terrifying figures which conftitute almoft all the grandeur of Milton, are by no means the object of a noble pencil: but rather feem beyond the reach of painting. Milton's defcriptions, except of the tender fcenes in Paradife, are like Gorgons, ftrongly characterized, and always excite terror.' (The very thing which Milton intended they should, and which they certainly ought to excite.) The figures of many other English poets fill the ear with violent noife, but prefent nothing to the mind.' Here again our Artift feems to have gone beyond his ·laft.

In page 97. in his chapter on the Arts of the Egyptians, I cannot poffibly, fays our Author, avoid mentioning a miftake of Warburton's, in his Effay on Hieroglyphics, where he takes the Ifiac table of bronze, for a Roman production. He feems to have adopted this groundless opinion only because it fquared with his fyftem. I have not indeed had an opportunity. of feeing the table myfelf; but the hieroglyphics which are there obferved, and which we do not find in any of the works imitated by the Romans, prove its antiquity, and fufficiently refute every argument that may be advanced to the contrary.'

We now proceed to chap. the third, the fubject of which is the confideration of Arts among the Etrufcans, the flourishing state of which our author attributes chiefly to their form of government, and the liberty of the people.

Among the exterior circumftances by which arts were favoured in Etruria (Tufcany) the conftitution of its government may be confidered as the chief: it is indeed a circumftance which has in all countries a great influence on arts and fciences. The liberty which this people enjoyed under their kings, fuffered the arts and Artifts to emerge from barbarifm and obfcurity, and approach perfection. The title of king did not fignify, among the Etrurians, a fovereign or defpotic monarch; but only a

chief or general, of whom there were twelve in number, according to the number of provinces, by the fuffrages of which the kings were elected. These twelve regents had over them a chief, who was alfo elected by the whole nation. The Etrurians were fo extreamly jealous of their liberty, and such enemies to royal authority, that it appeared to them odious and intolerable even in their allies.'- Liberty that beft nurfe of arts, together with their extenfive commerce, could not fail to excité in this people, that noble emulation which is the produce of a republic, where true honour may be obtained by the artist, and talents rewarded as they deferve. Nevertheless the arts never attained in Etruria that degree of perfection to which they were carried by the Greeks. Even in the works of their best times, there is an extravagance of ftile by which they are much diffigured. The caufe of this exaggeration must be fought for in the capacity of the people, whofe peculiarity of genius will throw fome light upon our inquiry. The Etrurians were of a much more bilious and melancholic temperament than the Greeks, as may be gathered from their refpective religious ceremonies, Such a temperament, according to Ariftotle, is generally that of the greateft men it is adapted to profound fpeculation, and intenfe thought; but it exaggerates every fentiment. Beauty makes no impreffion on the minds of fuch men : they are proof against the foft emotions, caufed by the most natural forms, in fouls of greater fenfibility.

This opinion of the character of the Etrurians is confirmed by the confideration of their having been the inventers of divination in the western world; and hence Etruria is called the mother of fuperftition. Their writings on these fubjects are horrible as they are numerous. One may form fome idea of their priefts from the fury of thofe who, in the year 399 of the foundation of Rome, armed themselves against the Romans with ferpents and blazing torches, in the caufe of the Tarquins, who had taken refuge among them; and one may judge of their hu manity by the horrid fpectacles exhibited to the people at their public funerals and in their amphitheatres. Such fpectacles were in time adopted by the Romans; but they were the invention of the Etrufcans. The Greeks, on the contrary, held fuch fights in abhorrence. In modern times, felf-flagellation began first in Tuscany. For the above reafons then, we generally find upon the Etrufcan fepulchral urns, the reprefentations of funeral combats, entirely unknown among the Greeks. The Roman urns, which were chiefly done by Greek artifts, are on the contrary embellifhed with agreeable imagery; fuch as allegorical allufions to human life, or chearful reprefentations of death: for example, Endymion afleep, Bacchanalian dances, marriages, &c. It was cuftomary among the Romans at their funerals to

dance

dance before the corps; and Scipio Africanus ordered that his friends fhould drink upon his tomb.' This reminds us of a gentleman who died fome years ago at Heath near Wakefield in Yorkshire. He ordered by his will, that a half-guinea bowl of punch fhould be drank, by the bearers his quondam companions, upon his coffin, at a certain public house in the road to church, which is about half a mile from the house in which he died. How irreverent foever fuch humour may appear to those in whose ideas the face of religion is overfpread with a perpetual gloom, and to whom death is a king of terrors; it is most certain that those men who behold these matters in a chearful light, and who are capable of receiving his terrific majefty with good humour and complacency, are not the most unhappy of mortals.

In chapter the fourth, we find the following paffages, among many others deferving attention. Beauty, fays our Author, the only object and center of art, would require a general definition, which I wish it were in my power to give to the fatiffaction of my Reader, and of myfelf: but the task is difficult.. Beauty is a fecret of nature: we see it and feel its effects; nevertheless, to form a precife and clear idea of its nature is exceeding difficult. Its precious effence remains yet undiscovered. If it were capable of mathematical demonstration, the opinions of mankind concerning it, would be uniform.

The artificial formation of beauty began from the imitation. of a beautiful object, even in the reprefentation of gods and goddeffes: alfo in the most polifhed ages, the ftatues of goddeffes were copied from beautiful women, even from those who abused their beauty, by fetting a price upon their favours. The Gymnafia, and other places where youth promifcuously exercifed themselves in different games, and whither men reforted to contemplate nature without a veil, were the schools of the Greek artists. Hither they came to ftudy beautiful nature, and to learn to copy her. Their imaginations were inflamed by this daily contemplation of charming nudities, and beauty in time became a familiar idea! The artifts found in blooming youth the three effential characteristics of beauty, viz. unity, multiplicity, and harmony. The form of a beautiful body is compofed of lines which continually change their central point; always curved, yet never making part of a circle. This multiplication of centers was ftudied and obferved by the Greek artifts in works of every kind, even in the conftruction of their vafes.'-But the most beautiful forms in nature are not perfect: that is, there may be found in the most beautiful human body, fome parts unequal to the reft, and which may be found ftill more beautiful in others. For this reafon, the idea of beauty among the Greeks was not confined to any individual,'—“So

that

that Bernini was in the wrong to fuppofe the ftory fabulous which he relates of Zeuxis, that intending to paint a Juno, he felected at Cartona five of the moft perfect beauties he could find, copying from each fuch features as he thought most beautiful.'

If it were poffible to convey an adequate idea of a form perfectly beautiful, fuch an one as hath never been beheld in human nature, I would attempt to defcribe a winged genius, at the Villa Borghefe, which is about the ftature of a well formed youth. If a lively and pure imagination, exquifitely fenfible to the impreffions of beauty, and entirely abforbed in the contemplation of that beauty which iffues from and returns again to the Deity; if fuch an imagination could figure to itfelf, in a dream, the apparition of an angel, whofe radiant vifage beamed divine luftre, and whofe form feemed an emanation from the fource of divine harmony; fuch would be the beautiful figure of which I am fpeaking. One fhould fay, that Art created this exquifite ftatue, with the confent of the Almighty, after the beauty of angels, in order to give us a lively reprefentation of their perfection.

Venus, fays our Author, is more frequently reprefented than the other goddeffes, and at very different ages. The Venus of

Medicis, at Florence, may be compared to a rofe gently expanding at the rifing of the fun. She feems to have juft paft that age which is yet auftere and rude, like unripe fruit. This appears from her breafts which are more full and fpreading than thofe of a young girl. Whilft I behold her, methinks I fee that Laïs whom Apelles initiated into the myfteries of Venus, and the feems juft as the appeared the first time fhe was obliged to ftand naked before the artist.'

Thefe few paffages may poffibly be fufficient to give the reader an idea of the nature of this work; a work which abundantly fhews the author to have ftudied the fubject on which he writes, with infinite labour and uncommon attention. We cannot, however, take our leave of him without obferving, that his manner is frequently more dictatorial than becomes a candid enquirer after truth, when writing on a fubject which in its nature must be often doubtful. The opinions of former writers, though they may be fometimes erroneous, deferve, nevertheless to have been treated with lefs contempt. As to this French tranflation, it is fo extremely deficient in point of language, that we are of opinion, the tranflator is not a native of France.

See Appendix to Review Vol. XXXI. p. 552; where the German original of M, Winckelmann's performance is briefly mentioned in the Catalogue,

Principes du droit de la Nature et des Gens par 7. J. Burlamaqui, c. Le tout confiderablement augmenté par Mr. le Profeffeur de Felice. That is, the Principles of the Law of Nature and Nations, by J. J. Burlamaqui, with confiderable Additions by Mr. Profeffor de Felice. 8vo. 2 Vol. Yverdon, 1766.

S Burlamaqui's judicious and useful work concerning the

A principles y natural and politic law has met with a very

favourable reception from the public in general, we think it incumbent upon us to give our Readers an account of this new edition of it. It was intended, as the Author himself acquaints us, as an introduction to a larger work, or to a complete fyftem of the law of nature and nations, which he once propofed to have published. In order to fupply the want of this larger work, Mr. Profeffor de Felice has greatly enlarged the Introductin, partly with his own remarks, and, partly, with others. taken from Burlamaqui's own manufcript, and the beft writers upon the subject. These remarks, which are defigned to make Burlamaqui's a complete work, are not placed at the bottom of the page, but inserted in the text, with proper marks to diftinguish them.

Many of the Profeffor's remarks appear to us to be extremely juft and pertinent. In fome points he differs from Burlamaquí, whom he treats, however, with great respect, and proposes his objections with modefty. As the work is principally intended for young ftudents, he feems extremely folicitous to inculcate virtuous principles, and never fails to enlarge upon fuch topics as have a tendency to improve the heart.

In a long preface, containing a hundred and fifty pages and upwards, he gives a fhort account of the principal writers upon the law of nature, both antient and modern, and of their feveral fyftems. This hiftorical view is both entertaining and inftructive; and is introduced in the following manner.

In the progrefs which has been made in arts and sciences from the beginning of the world to the prefent time, there are certain gradations, which fhew both the degree of importance of the feveral objects of our enquiries, and the goodness of our Creator, who has placed them within our reach, and has rendered the difcovery of them eafy to us, in proportion to their influence upon our happiness.

It was long before several arts and fciences were known to mankind, and the progress they made in them was very flow. Aftronomy, mathematics, the art of war, the refinements of policy, architecture, painting, mufic, and navigation, were not the firft productions of the human mind. These branches of knowlege are not effentially neceffary to men; all cannot apply themselves to them; we may all be happy, and answer the

defigns