It was by the advice of Pamphilus that the magistrates of Sicyon ordained that the study of drawing should constitute part of the education of the citizens—“a law,” says the Abbé Barthélémie, “which rescued the fine arts from servile hands.” It is stated of Parrhasius, the rival of Zeuxis, who flourished about the same period as Pamphilus, that he accelerated the progress of art by purity and correctness of design; “for he was acquainted with the science of Proportions. Those he gave his gods and heroes were so happy, that artists did not hesitate to adopt them.” Parrhasius, it is also stated, was so admired by his contemporaries, that they decreed him the name of Legislator.[32] The whole history of the arts in Egypt and Greece concurs to prove that they were based on geometric precision, and were perfected by a continued application of the same science; while in all other countries we find them originating in rude and misshapen imitations of nature. In the earliest stages of Greek art, the gods—then the only statues—were represented in a tranquil and fixed posture, with the features exhibiting a stiff inflexible earnestness, their only claim to excellence being symmetrical proportion; and this attention to geometric precision continued as art advanced towards its culminating point, and was thereafter still exhibited in the neatly and regularly folded drapery, and in the curiously braided and symmetrically arranged hair.[33] These researches, imperfect as they are, cannot fail to exhibit the great contrast that exists between the system of elementary education in art practised in ancient Greece, and that adopted in this country at the present period. But it would be of very little service to point out this contrast, were it not accompanied by some attempt to develop the principles which seem to have formed the basis of this excellence amongst the Greeks. But in making such an attempt, I cannot accuse myself of assuming anything incompatible with the free exercise of that spontaneity of genius which the learned essayist says is the parent and nurse of idealism. For it is in no way more incompatible with the free exercise of artistic genius, that those who are so gifted should have the advantage of an elementary education in the science of æsthetics, than it is incompatible with the free exercise of literary or poetic genius, that those who possess it should have the advantage of such an elementary education in the science of philology as our literary schools and colleges so amply afford. No. II.