Page 92

92            ANALYSIS of BEAUTY. 
which rate, I am perfuaded, my reader will now con- 
ceive to have been entirely owing to the perfedt know- 
ledge the ancients muft have had of the ufe of the pre- 
cife ferpentine-line. 
But this caufe of elegance not having been fince fuf- 
ficiently underftood, no wonder fuch effets fhould have 
appear'd myfterious, and have drawn mankind into a 
fort of religious efteem, and even bigotry, to the works 
of antiquity. 
Nor have there been wanting of artful people, who 
have made good profit of thofe whofe unbounded ad- 
miration hath run them into enthufiafm. Nay there are, 
I believe, fome who frill carry on a comfortable trade 
in fuch originals as havc btcn fo defaced and maimed 
by time, that it would be impoflible, without a pair of 
double-ground connoiffeur-fpe&acles, to fee whether 
they have ever been good or bad: they deal alfo ia 
cook'd-up copies, which they are very apt to put off for 
originals. And whoever dares be bold enough to dete6t 
fuch impofitions, finds himfelf immediately branded, 
and given out as one of low ideas, ignorant of the true 
fublime, felf-conceited, envious, &c. 
But as there are a great part of mankind that delight 
mofi in what they leaft underfland; for ought I know, 
the emolument may be equal between the bubler and 
the bubled: at leaft this feems to have been Butler's 
opinion: 
Doubtlefs the pleafure is as great 
In being cheated, as to cheat.       C H A P.