The Victoria Regia Author:Adelaide Anne Procter Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: y 4£v By Mrs. Grote. HIS vast theme, to the illustration of which the finest intellects and the most assiduous study have been for ages directed, can ha... more »rdly be approached without temerity by an amateur, whose knowledge must be, necessarily, superficial and incomplete, compared with that possessed by professional students. As, however, I have been invited to aid in weaving a " garland " of literary leaves, destined to be laid at the feet of our illustrious sovereign, I will do my best to justify the compliment. AVhilst renouncing the pretension to offer any novel or striking views on the subject, I propose to take a short survey of the comparative position occupied by the arts, and of the character imparted to them by cotemporary influences, at different stages of the history of mankind. That the function of art is to act upon the imagination through the senses, is a proposition familiar to all of us. The precise form, however, in which this action shall exert itself must depend upon the state in which the popular imagination of the period happens to be. In an early stage of social development the prevalent ideas are few, simple, and deep- seated. The ancient architecture of the world accordingly combines grandeur and simplicity with perfect adaptation to its ends. In pictorial efforts, the primitive features of interest ever present in early societies constitute the subjects ; as war, hunting, and pompous ceremonials. In proportion as the course of human thought advances, subjects multiply. The introduction of female figures attests a certain improvement in the social habits. Farther on, a conception of grace united with strength is engendered by the habitual contemplation of the unclothed human body; and the pour- trayal of this, under diversified action, comes ...« less