I have ceased to expect or hope or wish to devour and
digest the whole enormous collection; so I content myself with individual
things, and succeed in getting now and then a little honey from them.
Unless I were studying some particular branch of history or science or
art, this is the best that can be done with the British Museum.
I went first to-day into the Townley Gallery, and so along through all
the ancient sculpture, and was glad to find myself able to sympathize
more than heretofore with the forms of grace and beauty which are
preserved there,--poor, maimed immortalities as they are,--headless and
legless trunks, godlike cripples, faces beautiful and broken-nosed,--
heroic shapes which have stood so long, or lain prostrate so long, in the
open air, that even the atmosphere of Greece has almost dissolved the
external layer of the marble; and yet, however much they may be worn
away, or battered and shattered, the grace and nobility seem as deep in
them as the very heart of the stone. It cannot be destroyed, except by
grinding them to powder. In short, I do really believe that there was an
excellence in ancient sculpture, which has yet a potency to educate and
refine the minds of those who look at it even so carelessly and casually
as I do. As regards the frieze of the Parthenon, I must remark that the
horses represented on it, though they show great spirit and lifelikeness,
are rather of the pony species than what would be considered fine horses
now.
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