ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to CORRESPONDENTS. We take the earliest opportunity of thanking our friendly Correfpondent at Calcutta for his EXTRACTS and other communications, which were fafely delivered to us by the perfon to whom they were entrusted. Some we have inferted this month, and shall be thankful to him if he will in the fame manner tranfmit us in future what may be valuable that iffues from the Calcutta prefs. . To our feveral Correfpondents who so often defire reafons to be affigned for the omiffion of their pieces, we afwer, that they may be affured whatever is fent us will be read with candour and attention, and inferted if proper. Only to enumerate the various pieces we daily receive would take up too much room. AVERAGE PRICES of CORN, from Sept. 12, to Sept. 17, 1791. COUNTIES upon the COAST. Wheat Rye Barl. Oats Beans Wheat Rye Barl. Oats Beans. Surry 5 43 103 32 74 2 Lincoln York 0,0 02 Bedford Rutland Leicester 6 13 9:3 72 Nottingham 5 73 103 5 566376 54 444 5 03 53 3 Durham 6 92 13 33 Northumberl.5 Cumberland 6 94 Weftmorld. 6 2 2 2 2 2 092930 ∞0 7 3 200 90 420330 +. 0,2 2 5 20 7 5 40 02 91 02 80 Hants Suffex STATE of the BAROMETER and THERMOMETER. BAROMETER. THERMOM. WIND. 95 --- 50 North Wales 6 114 AUGUST. 19-29 48 19-19-78 62 N.N.W. 30-29 192 W. 21-30- 05 56 96 55 56 N. N. E. E. S. S. N. W. W! N. N. N. N. E. N. E. Drawn and Engraved, by IConde, from a Model of TBanks. T. BANKS. SCULPTOR R.A. Purihid as the Act directs, Aug. 1791 by J.Sewell. Cornhill. [WITH A PORTRAIT. ] With hope, or fear, or love, by turns, When finks to dult this mortai frame, SCULPTURE attained to a degree of excellence among the Greeks, which the fucceeding ages of the world have never reached. Such a triumph of Grecian over Modern Art may, perhaps, be naturally afcribed to a genial climate, that gave fuch a temperament of body as tended to produce fine fenfations; to a language of great strength, copioufnefs, and harmony; to the public honours bestowed on the cultivators of literature; to the emulation excited among the young men, by exhibitions of their works at the folenin Games; to a contempt of the arts of lucre and commerce, which to much engrofs and debafe the minds of the Moderus; and above all, to an exemption from loading their natural faculties with learning and languages, with which we in these latter times are obliged to qualify ourselves, if we afpire to the fame of tafte and literature. It may be alfo added, that those difeafes which are fo deftructive of beauty were unknown to the Greeks. There is not the least hint of the fmall-pox to be found in the writings of their physicians; and Homer, whofe portraits are always drawn with much truth and precision, mentions not one face that had fuffered from the indented marks of that disorder. Other complaints now fo hoftile to the exterior beauty of the human form, had not yet a name. In Greece, the Artist enjoyed nature without a veil; the Gymnafies, where, fheltered by public modefty, the youth exercifed themselves naked, were the Schools of Art. These a Phidias would frequent to improve himself by fuch a fpectacle ;there he studied the elafticity of the mufcles, the ever-varying motions of the frame, the outlines of the finest forms, or the contour left by the young wrestler on the fand. Here naked beauty appeared with fuch a lively expreffion, fuch truth and variety of fituation, and such an air of dignity, as it would be ridiculous to expect, and indeed hopeless to find, in any hired model of our Academies. Besides, the fairest youths danced undreffed on the theatre, and Sophocles himself, when young, was the first who dared in this manner to entertain his fellow-citizens, Phryne went to bathe at the Eleufinian Games, exposed to the eyes of all Greece, and, rifing from the water, became the Y 2 model model of Venus Aradyomene. Even, on certain folemnities, the young Spartan maidens did not hesitate to join in the public dances in the finiple drefs of nature. A religion whofe deities confifted of the perfonified paffions, and the reprefentation of which called forth the most enthusiastic exertions of sculpture, was another very commanding advantage to aid the decided predominance poffeffed by the Sculptors of Greece. Their works, even in a mutilated state, are ftill confidered as models of proportion, beauty, and character; are contemplated with enthufiaftic veneration, and imitated as examples which at the fame time teach and infpire the excellence of the modern chifel. Bernini, however, formed a falfe notion of grace; and the genius of Michael Angelo feems almost to have detpifed it; though grace, fimple grace alone, places the remains of ancient art, even of a fecondary merit, above the fineft productions of thofe great men. If Italy, therefore, with advantages, in fome particulars, fimilar to thofe of Greece, cannot, in any degree, rival the models of ancient fculpture, which the tooth of time, the ravages of war and barbarian fanaticifm has fpared her, it cannot be a matter for aftonishment that Sculpture has made but few advances to excellence in this country, where there is fo little local advantage, and, till the prefent period, fo little encouragement given to the fine arts, and whofe very climate has been faid to be too cold for ftatues. Britain may, however, at length boast an Artist, who rivals, if he does not furpass, the firft Sculptors of any country of the prefent period. Mr. BANKS has in his works, and for the honour of British tafte and patronage, there ought to have been many more of them, produced examples of his kill, which afford us every realon to expect, that Sculpture will, at length, he naturalized in, and g've fplendour to, the rifing School of British Arts. The Monument to the memory of Sir Eyre Coote, in Westminster Abbey, is the work of Mr. Banks; and, without degrading the best fepulchral marbles in that magnificent mausoleum of British Worthics, we do not hesitate to pronounce its decided fuperiority The whole compofition of the piece is fimple, grand, and of admirable connection. The figure of Victory is finely conceived, and executed with the truth and fpirit of a great mafter. But the MAHRATTA CAPTIVE-and here we make a paufe, not with doubt as to the meature of praise we fhall beftow, but from the powerful effect which the bare remembrance of the figure has upon the mind of the writer-is the moft original, as well as the fineft fepulchral statue of modern, or, perhaps, of any times. One touch more of the chifel, and there would have been too much one touch less, and there would have been too little. It is an example of that fmall, nice, indiftinct line by which Natures divides completeness from fuperfluity. Never, furely, did the monumental alabafter wear a form fo perfect, so appropriate, so affecting. It is a confummate work, and combines all the powers of a fuperior mind. It is perfectly original, and therefore proves invention;— it poffeffes that harmony of various parts which conftitutes beauty;-it difcovers that manly ftrength, freedom and steadiness of hand which denote fuperior execution; and in the fedate dignified character of its grief, there is diftinguished a genuine characteristic grace and fimplicity. In short, the genius of Mr. Banks, and it belongs only to a genius of the first order to do fuch things, has given the true attribute of nature, and of the most difficult execution, to this aftonishing breaft. Grace, fimplicity, and fepulchral effect, are finely expreffed and fully produced by the monument erected in the church of St. Mary Le Bow to the memory of Dr, Newton, Bishop of Briftol. The figures are beautifully characteristic, and would not fail to produce the most folemn_impreffions in the mind of the contemplative beholder, even if it were not their office to guard the remains of worth, learning, and piety, which repofe beneath them. The ftatue reprefenting Filial Affection, the model of which was in the last year's Exhibition of the Royal Academy, and is defigned to give a mournful grace to a Mausoleum in Ireland, is another charming example of the fill with which this Artist can perfonify the finest fentiments of the human heart. Sculpine, indeed, in this country, has hitherto been almost exclusively confined to the Tomb and the Chimney-piece. But with a fpirit which at the fame time gives vigour and dignity to all their undertakings, the BOYDELLS have called the genius of Mr. BANKS to adorn their SHAKSPEARE GALLERY.-They have fummoned the firit fculptor of their country to decorate with his art the diftinguifhed edifice which contains the works of the firft painters of it; and we may furely indulge ment beyond a mere folitary hope, that this eminent Artist will be eagerly ployed by the rich and great to enrich a fenti em their |