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Show 218 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. The crowd of imitators whom the splendid genius of these great men has attracted is very pernicious to young artists, who flatter themselves that they have faithfully reproduced their originals by copying all that is faulty in them. Void of both taste and fancy, these theatrical apes believe they work miracles, by straying from the road marked out by good sense. The vulgar, surprised and even astonished, second such efforts by vehement applause, and the frenzy endures a short period in opposition to the better understanding of connoisseurs; and, it even gives birth to other and similar productions. " Credite, Pisones, isti fabula; fore librum Persimile, cujus, veluta egri somnia vanre Fingentur species: ut nee pes, nee caput uni. Reddatur formse .' HORACE. CHAPTER XXI. ON MODELS, AND THE METHOD OF STUDYING THEM. " The subject selected should be both known and appropriate.'' ARISTOTLE. T H E origin of tragedy may be traced to the immortal poems of Homer; and it is to his Margites and his other satirical poems, that we are indebted for the discovery of |