That such a canon of form, and that the use of such geometrical formula, entered into the education, and thereby facilitated the practice of ancient Greek art, I have in a former work expressed my firm belief, which is founded on the remarkable fact, that for a period of nearly three centuries, and throughout a whole country politically divided into states often at war with each other, works of sculpture, architecture, and ornamental design were executed, which surpass in symmetrical beauty any works of the kind produced during the two thousand years that have since elapsed. So decided is this superiority, that the artistic remains of the extraordinary period I alluded to are, in all civilised nations, still held to be the most perfect specimens of formative art in the world; and even when so fragmentary as to be denuded of everything that can convey an idea of expression, they still excite admiration and wonder by the purity of their geometric beauty. And so universal was this excellence, that it seems to have characterised every production of formative art, however humble the use to which it was applied. The common supposition, that this excellence was the result of an extraordinary amount of genius existing among the Greek people during that particular period, is not consistent with what we know of the progress of mankind in any other direction, and is, in the present state of art, calculated to retard its progress, inasmuch as such an idea would suggest that, instead of making any exertion to arrive at a like general excellence, the world must wait for it until a similar supposed psychological phenomenon shall occur. But history tends to prove that the long period of universal artistic excellence throughout Greece could only be the result of an early inculcation of some well-digested system of correct elementary principles, by which the ordinary amount of genius allotted to mankind in every age was properly nurtured and cultivated; and by which, also, a correct knowledge and appreciation of art were disseminated amongst the people generally. Indeed, Müller, in his “Ancient Art and its Remains,” shews clearly that some certain fixed principles, constituting a science of proportions, were known in Greece, and that they formed the basis of all artists’ education and practice during the period referred to; also, that art began to decline, and its brightest period to close, as this science fell into disuse, and the Greek artists, instead of working for an enlightened community, who understood the nature of the principles which guided them, were called upon to gratify the impatient whims of pampered and tyrannical rulers.