In the uses of the Arts, SCULPTURE was the first that was adopted to fix the thoughts of man beyond the frailty of song; and its employment in religion caused its early perfection. The diminution of these uses has, perhaps, rendered its cultivation less in modern times, for, notwithstanding the brilliant specimens of it which have been produced in the several ages, from Michael Angelo to Canova, we have nothing yet to rival the Venus or Apollo, the Elgin marbles, or many of the statues and bass relievos of antiquity. But the art of sculpture has assumed a wider range, and far beyond its primary uses: in furnishing objects which are raised by gratitude to the memory of the just and great-by piety and public taste in monuments and tombs--or in the decoration of temples and ornament of public edifices, it has diffused its influence over arts and manners, and given improvement to innumerable manufactures.

It was a just remark made by Mr. West, that the arrival of the ancient statues at Paris, had an immediate and powerful effect on the manufactures of Great Britain. Their first influence, however, was on the dress and consequent manners of the north of Europe, in which they greatly assisted the march of freedom; then were seen the lofty pyramid of hair and powder-the long ruffle and enormous hoop, the stiff brocade and high-heeled shoe, to bend before the beautiful and braided hair, which crowned the head of Venus, and the chaste muslin that enwrapped the forms of Ceres and Vesta. In the same manner, the curled

toupee, the stiff queue and spreading bag wig, bowed to the simple crop of Brutus, and man began to feel that the formal hat and laced coat were no longer essential to sustain the dignity of his character. A renovated age arose, in which the graces assumed their sway, and inspired a new and universal taste to improve every manufacture, from the sandals which adorned the feet of antiquity, to the robes which encircled its forms.

Before this æra, Mr. Tassie and Mr. Wedgewood had begun to copy the beautiful busts and gems of the ancients, in which they were preeminently happy; and the latter, proceeding step by step in mastering every ancient form or composition, founded those new manufactures of British pottery, which, far transcending all that had been recovered from Etruria, gives us every common article of life, in forms of classic elegance, and at prices which enable all to command them.

I should exhaust your patience, were I to describe the innumerable forms in which the statues, relievos, altars, sarcophagi and vases of antiquity, have entered into the various manufactures of gold and silver, brass and iron, and, in fact, of every other material-what new arts and objects of industry they have brought into use, and what countless wealth they have bestowed on individuals and nations.

One of the first steps to sculpture is the art of MODELLING in wax, clay, wood, or any convenient material. Most

statuaries thus form their first designs, and young artists are thus taught before they are entrusted with marble-a pallet and lump of fine clay in this manner forms a very pleasing employment to every person of taste, and it is thus that the art is soon acquired, to copy the ancient or any other existing works, and to form new ones. In this way it is that we have moulds from which plaister impressions are taken or models themselves and not only the most beautiful specimens of ancient and modern art are thus placed before us, but all sorts of useful objects and works of interest, palaces, houses, columns, locks, bridges, and machines; anatomical forms, animals, mountains, and countries, all with a degree of perfection which no drawing could give. So familiar and so elegant does this plastic art become by use, that besides the professed artists in Italy and almost every other country, it has been taken up and pursued by many ladies, who have attained great excellence in it—among these I may name our own celebrated countrywoman, Mrs. Wright, who was distinguished some years past in London, for her wax figures made with astonishing truth and elegance; and the honourable Mrs. Damer, niece to Lord Walpole, who, from forming exquisite models in clay, assumed the chisel, and executed a fine statue of George III. now in the Register's office at Edinburgh.

There is another art connected with sculpture too important to be overlooked-I mean that of MEDALS and

coins, which, independent of their use as money, and as beautiful specimens of taste, accomplished many objects which could scarcely be attained in any other way. They strongly claimed the attention of the Greeks and Romans, and have served not only to settle many important dates, but have furnished the series of their histories. Nor have they been disregarded by the moderns in any age when the flourishing state of the Arts has admitted them. In the course of their long and bloody conflict for freedom, the states of Holland commemorated in this manner every important event, and a number of their medals are preserved in the Philadelphia Library. Nor has our own country neglected the excellent example. Those bold deeds which have placed patriotism and valour among the characteristic virtues of her sons, will thus descend to distant times; and in the cabinets of some future age and nation, the gifts of a grateful people will be preserved with those of Greece and Rome.

In examining the uses of PAINTING, a wide field of inquiry opens upon us, and we must divide the objects which present themselves, into those that spring directly from the art itself, and those derived from subordinate branches to which it has given rise? When the Spaniards arrived on the shores of Mexico, the people who saw them, sent to Montezuma, not letters, but pictures of their ships and men---their horses and arms. How powerfully did these place before him, not the tame description of

language, but the living image of so extraordinary a phenomenon. Such a fact carries us back to the long existence of symbolic or hieroglyphic writings, and we are struck with uses in them, which no other art can perform. From this, we are led to examine two great effects of painting; first, the grandeur of the whole, and then the various ideas obtained from its detail. When a beautiful landscape of Claude is presented to our view, we are first struck with the exquisite beauty of the whole design, without regarding place or country; but a second interest soon arises from its placing us before the skies, and hills, and woods of Italy, the beautiful temple of the Sibyl, some venerable arch or story of antiquity, the portraits of scenes on which curiosity has long dwelt. The same effects attend every other species of painting, moral, historical, allegorical or descriptive, in which, beside the great lesson or story they inculcate, a thousand circumstances of person, costume, local description and manners are imparted. What, for instance, besides the themes of adoration they present, can give us figures so graceful or so lovely as those of Raphael or Correggio? What, in familiar life, place before us the people, and fashions, and manners of Flanders or Holland, in such vivid detail as the pencil of Teniers? Painting, indeed, beyond all other arts familiarizes us with the world, and there are a thousand objects which no other can teach. What else can recall to our memory the image of a lost