Page:Supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica - with preliminary dissertations on the history of the sciences - illustrated by engravings (IA gri 33125011196181).pdf/831

 Greeks, the Kali of the Hindoos, were all sanguinary Deities. Children sacrificed to the two former, were precipitated into the arms of an idol, heated red-hot in a furnace; and thence, by a particular mechanism, fell into the fire. Hamilcar, on receiving sinister intelligence, attended with alarming circumstances, immediately seized on a boy, and sacrificed him to Kronus. On another occasion, the enemy being at the gates of Carthage, two hundred children of the first citizens were offered as a public sacrifice to avert the danger. “Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.” But farther, we are told, that the mother herself, who offered her child in sacrifice, never uttered a sigh, lest its efficacy might be impaired; and while this innocent blood was flowing from hundreds of victims, their screams were drowned in the noise of clarions and tabors, provided by the priests for the ceremony. “Tell me,” says Plutarch, “were the monsters of old, the Typhons, and the Giants, to expel the Gods, and rule the world in their place, would they exact a duty more horrid than such infernal rites?”

Perhaps, therefore, the murderous practices of the Arreoys in the South Sea Islands, may have originated in some religious principle. At the same time, it appears, that, in the ordinary destruction of infants by the Islanders of the South Pacific Ocean, there is nothing of a sacrificial nature; for, though they do not suppose that their displeasure is thereby incurred, they do not pretend that the practice is acceptable to any of their Divinities. Mr Malthus, we may add, ascribes the origin of the Arreoy institutions to a superabundance of population, and the necessity of adopting some forcible expedients to bring it within the limits of subsistence. Of late years, much exertion has been made by the Missionaries to root out this sanguinary practice, but hitherto without producing any material effect. See Forster’s Voyage, Vol. II.—Cook’s First and Second Voyage.—Bligh’s Voyage.—Missionary Voyage.—Hamilton’s Account of the Loss of the Pandora.

the Encyclopædia there is some account, under the head, of the general theory and history of the Fine Arts, including Poetry, Eloquence, Painting, Statuary, and Architecture. The term, in its widest application, would also embrace Music, Dancing, Theatrical Exhibition; and in general, all those arts, in which the powers of imitation or invention are exerted, chiefly with a view to the production of pleasure, by the immediate impression which they make on the mind. The phrase has of late, we think, been restricted to a narrower and more technical signification; namely, to Painting, Sculpture, Engraving, and Architecture, which appeal to the eye as the medium of pleasure; and by way of eminence, to the two first of these arts. In the present article, we shall adopt this limited sense of the term; and shall endeavour to develope the principles upon which the great Masters have proceeded, and also to inquire, in a more particular manner, into the present state and probable advancement of these arts in this Country.

The great works of art, at present extant, and which may be regarded as models of perfection in their several kinds, are the Greek statues—the pictures of the celebrated Italian Masters—those of the Dutch and Flemish schools—to which we may add the comic productions of our own countryman, Hogarth. These all stand unrivalled in the history of art; and they owe their pre-eminence and perfection to one and the same principle,—the immediate imitation of nature. This principle predominated equally in the classical forms of the antique, and in the grotesque figures of Hogarth; the perfection of art in each arose from the truth and identity of the imitation with the reality; the difference was in the subjects; there was none in the mode of imitation. Yet the advocates for the ideal system of art would persuade their disciples, that the difference between Hogarth and the antique does not consist in the different forms of nature which they imitated, but in this, that the one is like, and the other unlike nature. This is an error, the most detrimental, perhaps, of all others, both to the theory and practice of art. As, however, the prejudice is very strong and general, and supported by the highest authority, it will be necessary to go somewhat elaborately into the question, in order to produce an impression on the other side.

What has given rise to the common notion of the ideal, as something quite distinct from actual nature, is probably the perfection of the Greek statues. Not seeing among ourselves, anything to correspond in beauty and grandeur, either with the features or form of the limbs in these exquisite remains of antiquity, it was an obvious, but a superficial conclusion, that they must have been created from the idea existing in the artist’s mind, and could not have been copied from anything existing in nature. The contrary, however, is the fact. The general form, both of the face and figure, which we observe in the old statues, is not an ideal abstraction, is not a fanciful invention of the sculptor, but is as completely local and national (though it happens to be more beautiful), as the figures on a Chinese screen, or a copperplate engraving of a negro chieftain in a book of travels. It will not be denied, that there is a difference of physiognomy as well as of complexion in different races of men. The Greek form appears to have been naturally beautiful, and they had, besides, every advantage of climate, of dress, of exercise, and modes of life to improve it. The artist had also every facility afforded him in the study and knowledge of the human form, and their religious and public institutions gave him every encouragement in the