Powers knows nothing
scientifically of the human frame, and only succeeds in representing it
as a natural bone-doctor succeeds in setting a dislocated limb by a happy
accident or special providence. (The illustration was my own, and
adopted by Mr. ------.) Yet Mr. ------ seems to acknowledge that he did
succeed. I repeat these things only as another instance how invariably
every sculptor uses his chisel and mallet to smash and deface the
marble-work of every other. I never heard Powers speak of Mr. ------,
but can partly imagine what he would have said.
Mr. ------ spoke of Powers's disappointment about the
twenty-five-thousand-dollar appropriation from Congress, and said that he
was altogether to blame, inasmuch as he attempted to sell to the nation
for that sum a statue which, to Mr. ------'s certain knowledge, he had
already offered to private persons for a fifth part of it. I have not
implicit faith in Mr. ------'s veracity, and doubt not Powers acted
fairly in his own eyes.
October 23d.
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