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VENUS Anadyomene. This was placed by Augustus in the temple of Julius Cæsar.

A HERO naked.

His portrait, by himself, is celebrated in the Anthology, 1. iv. c. 6.

He painted various other things, which are mentioned by Pausanias, Athenæus, Pliny, Cicero, &c. &c. &c. The above, I believe, were his principal works. The Venus was of all the most admired, and was again and again celebrated by the best of the Grecian and Roman poets.

APOLLODOrus.

Hesychius, Plutarch, the Scholiast on Aristophanes, Pliny, and many others unite in their eulogiums on this artist. He made great improvements in the mixture of colours, if he was not the first who discovered the art of doing it. His great picture was Ajax struck by lightning, which Pliny says remained in his time at

Pergamos. Another famous picture, on the same authority, was to be seen at the same place, by Apollodorus, of a priest in the act of worshipping. He was an Athenian, and Plutarch says, had this inscription on his performance. “It is easier to find fault here, than to imitate."

ARISTIDES

Is memorable as being the first artist who attempted to represent the Passions. His subject was beautiful and impressing. He painted a mother dying from a wound received in the sacking of a town, with an infant sucking at her breast. He displayed the anguish of the mother, lest the infant should receive into its lips any portion of the blood.

THE picture was so highly celebrated, that Alexander the Great removed it to Pella; it gave occasion to many beautiful compositions, and among others to one of the most interesting pieces in the Greek Anthology, beginning with

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Ελκε ταλαν, &ς.

THUS translated by Grotius.

Suge miser nunquam quæ posthac pocula suges
Ultima ab exanimo corpore pocla trahe
Exspiravit enim jam saucia, sed vel ab orco
Infantem novit pascere matris amor.

Thus very imperfectly in English.

Drink, wretched babe,where thou canst drink no more:
Dried is the fount which gave thee life before;
But ah! tho' entering on her dark, cold grave,
A mother's love her darling strives to save.

PLINY informs us, that king Attalus gave a hundred talents for a single picture by this artist. The subject was Bacchus, and it was afterwards suspended in the temple of Ceres at Rome. One of the most esteemed performances of Aristides was a picture which he left unfinished. Many of his works were brought from Greece to Rome by Mummius, who sold them by public auction. An Ariadne, which also adorned the temple of Ceres, is highly commended by Pliny, as was also the Tragic Muse,

which was in the temple of Apollo. He painted also a picture of Hercules; Alexander engaged in battle with the Persians; Hunting Pieces, &c. &c.

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No place of public resort lays under contribution a greater number of differ- . departments of the fine arts, than the theatre: none, consequently, is more calculated than the theatre, under proper direction, to improve the taste of a nation, with respect to those arts; and to give foreigners an exalted idea of the measure of that taste in every country. Architecture, sculpture, painting, the most graceful forms of the body, the

most impressive passions of the mind, the costume of different nations, and the manners of different ages, can no where be collected in a stronger focus, and can no where be exhibited to a greater variety of spectators.

I CANNOT however help thinking, Sir, that our theatres still stand greatly in need of that proper direction here alluded to; and as, in your capacity of Director*, you may not deem it totally unworthy of the office you have assumed, to bestow the same-I shall, with your leave, point out what seems to me to be

* My correspondent here considers me in too severe a light: I never meant imperatively to direct the taste or the pursuits of others, more capable, perhaps, of directing me. In my first number the world was told that I considered myself as a mere guide post,to direct the course of others to moral and intellectual excellence.' My paper is open to good directions from all quarters; and I am very glad it is made instrumental to such as form the contents of this letter. Few appear to be better qualified than my correspondent to speak con amore on the subject he has undertaken to illustrate,

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