Our taste has been spoilt by the multiplication of bad books, bad pictures, and bad statues. To recover the correctness of taste which is natural to a healthy and happy man, we must study from the Greek models, and imbibe insensibly the harmony and grace by which they are distinguished. Æschylus, it is true, does not present the most finished example of tragic art; his works are rather sublime than polished; but they possess a very high degree of beauty and moderation, and are executed on so large a scale that they may bear to dispense with finish. If all Greek art is typified by the statue, those statues which correspond to the plays of Æschylus are colossal. And to gain even a slight knowledge of his poetry is to enrich the mind with a store of beauty which cannot fail to be a joy for ever.
