This very fine composition is contained in an oval concave [p012] curve, and the figures in several points radiate to a centre. Some of the group pass the great leading line, but only to the degree and with the licence that a genius can effect, which destroys the too great, and the too palpable construction of the composition. The allegorical figures of Fame and Genius hovering over the royal personage, establish a centre to the oval, which prevents a void that would have been weak in the composition. Three designs were next produced from Etruscan vases, to carry the evidence further, and to show the original source of the demonstrations of beauty in Grecian art. One was a charioteer driving a pair of magnificent horses of the highest spirit, _Fig._ 22. The composition is elliptic, and serpentine within. [Illustration: _Fig._ 22.] The youthful conductor of the steeds is in a crescent or boat-shaped car, and his form is elegantly bent to meet the action and motion; his mantle flows behind in curved and serpentine folds, expressing the wind occasioned by the velocity of action. A more graceful or beautiful group and composition cannot be imagined. The next design was a female in an elegant and very gentle serpentine action of the figure. Every portion of the outlines was elegant, from the varied succession of convexity and concavity; not a single angle could be traced throughout the whole [p013] of this beautiful creature. She held in her left arm a very handsome oval vase; and in the other a sort of scarf with ribands, all serpentine in form. By her side is placed a young man selected from another Etruscan design. [Illustration: _Fig._ 23.] The line of this figure was the outline of an ellipse; it is perfection in every respect; and the grace was shown to depend upon gentle curved lines of convex and concave, alternately blended, and confluent. The motion of ships at sea is described in gentle elliptic curves; the wings and plumage of birds assume the oval and elliptic curves; all the fibres of their feathers have that form; some flattened, others more rounded: the pine-apple and numberless fruits have all an oval character of outline. Many take the character of eggs, pointed at one end, and large and blunt at the other extremity. The leaves of trees [p014] have the oval shape more than any other; the bend of the branches, and the whole external form of many trees is oval. There is no form of created things which may not be found to correspond in all its dependent shapes to ovals and ellipses of various disks, even objects which at first sight seem to contradict the possibility of meeting this system.