SECT.  VII.  Third Comparison, drawn from a Statue.

If a man should find in a desert island a fine statue of marble, he would undoubtedly immediately say, “Sure, there have been men here formerly; I perceive the workmanship of a skilful statuary; I admire with what niceness he has proportioned all the limbs of this body, in order to give them so much beauty, gracefulness, majesty, life, tenderness, motion, and action!”

What would such a man answer if anybody should tell him, “That’s your mistake; a statuary never carved that figure.  It is made, I confess, with an excellent gusto, and according to the rules of perfection; but yet it is chance alone made it.  Among so many pieces of marble there was one that formed itself of its own accord in this manner; the rains and winds have loosened it from the mountains; a violent storm has thrown it plumb upright on this pedestal, which had prepared itself to support it in this place.  It is a perfect Apollo, like that of Belvedere; a Venus that equals that of the Medicis; an Hercules, like that of Farnese.  You would think, it is true, that this figure walks, lives, thinks, and is just going to speak.  But, however, it is not in the least beholden to art; and it is only a blind stroke of chance that has thus so well finished and placed it.”