■^x*ga£4 ’ 
 
 'mrnks 
 
 ms 
 
 pi 
 
 KNR 
 

 
 
 Ulrich Middeldorf 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/accountofseriesoOObarr 
 
A N 
 
 ACCOUNT 
 
 of a S E,R I E S of 
 
 PICTURES, 
 
 IN T H F 
 
 GREAT ROOM 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Society of Arts, Manufactures, and 
 Commerce, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 A DELPHI . 
 
 By' J A M E S BARRY, 
 
 R. A. Profeflbr of Painting to the Royal Academy, 
 
 Laudandaque velle, fit fails. 
 
 L O N D 0 N : ' 
 
 Printed for the AUTHOR, 
 
 By William Adlard, Printer to the Society; 
 And fold by T. Cadeli, in the Strand j 
 and J, Walter, Charing Crofs. 
 m DCC lx x X III, 
 
A 
 
 
 
 
 it-/ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ♦ 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 TO THE 
 
 KING. 
 
 I Moft humbly beg leave to lay at your 
 Majefty’s feet, the following account 
 of a feries of Pidures, on the fubjed: of 
 human culture. 
 
 I have endeavoured to execute thofe 
 Pictures as a rejoinder and aid to the rea- 
 foning, in behalf of your Majefty’s peo- 
 ple of thefe iflands, that I have urged in 
 my inquiry into the real and imaginary 
 obftrudions to our acquifition of the arts, 
 which, as a poor teftimony of humble 
 duty, and with great humility, was laid 
 at your Majefty’s feet in 17 74. 
 
 That your Majefty, who is the equal 
 and affectionately tender father of all his 
 people, may long continue to derive fa- 
 A 2 tisfodio^ 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 lisfadtion from the Arts, and that theft 
 Arts may continue to merit your Ma- 
 jefty's moft gracious and neceffary protec- 
 tion, is the humble, though earned: prayer. 
 
 May it pleafe your Majefty, 
 
 Of your Majefty’s 
 
 Moft dutiful fervant. 
 
 And moft faithful fubjedt, 
 
 JAMES BARRY, 
 
 INTR 0~ 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 S OME few years fince, when I was at 
 Rome, Abbe Winckleman, the pope’s 
 antiquary, published a hiitory of the art, 
 which gave great offence to many of our 
 people, as it contained very fevere reflec- 
 tions upon the character of the Englifh, 
 charging them with the want of capacity 
 and genius to fucceed in the fuperior ex- 
 ertions of the arts of painting, &c. and 
 that their continued practice demonstrated 
 that they were fitted for nothing greater 
 than portraits, and other low matters, 
 from whence no honour could be derived 
 either to the artift or the country. Abbe 
 Winckleman having in this matter only 
 gleaned after Abbe du Bos, and the pre- 
 sident Monteiquieu, thefe injurious opi- 
 nions were become the common creed of 
 the greateft part of the dilletanti and pre- 
 A 3 tenders 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 tenders to picture knowledge. But a t- 
 the principle upon which this fyftem pro- 
 ceeded was founded in error, and occa- 
 fioned by the ignorance of thofe gentle- 
 men, of the nature of the art itfelf, and 
 of the mode and procefs of its growth 
 and corruption $ it appeared to me, that 
 the felting of thefe matters in their true 
 point of light, would be an undertaking 
 not unbecoming an artift, and from whence 
 fome little credit might be derived, I 
 was ready enough to flatter myfelf, that 
 the doing of this had been fortunately re- 
 fer ved for me ^ and accordingly, foon 
 after my return from Italy, I took the 
 liberty of humbly prefenting his Ma- 
 jefty (as the firfl: fruits of his academy)* 
 with my inquiry into the real and imagi- 
 nary obftruCtions to the acquifition of the 
 arts in England, which was very imper- 
 fectly publifhed by Becket, in 1774; and 
 it has been not a little flattering to me 
 lince, to find the objeCt of it admitted as 
 true and indubitable, by thofe who (land 
 
 m 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 In the higheft eftimation with the public* 
 for judgment, knowledge, and candoun 
 But the mod fatisfadtory proof of 
 all was yet wanting, I mean the adhtai 
 production of fome great work of hif- 
 torical painting. This was little likely 
 to happen, not fo much from any in- 
 furmountable difficulty in the under- 
 taking itfelf, as from the fervile, trifling 
 views of the public, the particular pa- 
 trons, or more properly the employers 
 of the artifts, who from caufes, which 
 have been largely explained in the in- 
 quiry above mentioned, were intent 
 upon nothing but the trifling particu- 
 lars of familiar life, wafting the whole 
 time, vigour, and pradtice of our artifts 
 in fuch a manner as made genius and 
 high information quite ufelefs, and 
 daily rendered the few, who from nature 
 and ftudy were at all qualified, but the 
 more and more unfit to reach that ftand- 
 ard, by which alone we could be entitled 
 to vie with the great performances of 
 Italy, France, &c. 
 
 A 4 The 
 
( 8 )' 
 
 The difficulty of fubfffiing by any 
 other fpecies of art, than that of por- 
 trait painting, the mean counfel of pa- 
 rents and friends, under the miftaken 
 notion of prudence, and the love of eafe 
 and affluence, had fo operated upon our 
 youth, that the country has been filled 
 with this fpecies of artifls. When men 
 fuffer themfeives to be forced away from 
 their own views of obtaining an honed: 
 fame, by advancing their art, by adding 
 new energies to it, by attempts to unite it 
 more clofely with the utility and improve- 
 ment of mankind, in manners, i$ un- 
 demanding, in private and in public vir- 
 tue : when men are prevailed with to relin- 
 quifh thefe, it may well be imagined that 
 fome few may be found capable of running 
 even into their very oppofites, into what 
 is not only mercenary and fordid, but 
 alfo vicious, every thing that is mean in 
 art, and ilill meaner in morals, may 
 then naturally be expected • their houfes 
 (ffiame upon them) will become conve- 
 nient,. 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 ment, and for other purpofes. - — To' 
 which thofe of painting portraits, ferve 
 but as a blind— '-But at beft few other 
 ends can be anfwered, than acquiring a 
 fubfiftence or a fortune, by complying 
 with the narrow views of others, and the 
 multiplying trifling but profitable parti- 
 culars, which, as we have feen, has no 
 other effedt as to the reputation of the 
 country, than to fully and diminifh it, 
 and to add new and continued force to 
 the farcafms of foreigners, upon our 
 want of capacity for great exertions. 
 Were we to continue multiplying por- 
 traits for a century longer, were we to 
 arrive at ever fo great a degree of me- 
 chanical excellence in this way, it could 
 make no alteration in the opinion of 
 Europe ; we fhould be fall, as we have 
 been, a feoff and a bye-word amoogfl na- 
 tions. Even in the painting of land- 
 fcape, where much more genius and 
 extent of mind can he ihewn, and where 
 fame of our artifts have pofieffed the 
 
 firft 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 firft rate abilities ; is it not more thari 
 probable that thefe excellent artifts will 
 not obtain the full credit they deferve, 
 until the curiofity and attention of the 
 world fliall be excited by our fuccef9 
 in the higher fpecies of art ; when we 
 have fucceedcd in this, we fhall then 
 probably get credit for the inferior de- 
 partments, and not before. 
 
 The reader will, I hope, not fo far 
 miftake, as to fuppofe me inclined 
 to call the leaft reflection or cenfure 
 upon the practice of painting portraits 
 Amply and fairly taken, far, far from 
 it ; no man values it more than I do 
 when it is confined within its proper 
 channels j like others I feel myfelf inte- 
 refted in the portrait of an anceftor, a 
 parent, a friend, of a benefaCtor to his 
 country or fpecies, of a wife, a great* 
 or a beautiful perfonage ; I am no 
 ftranger to the merit of the fine por- 
 trait of Mr. Abel at his defk, in the aCt 
 of compofingi of Mr. Hone, with his 
 
 face 
 
( » ) 
 
 face partly fhaded by his hat ; of a pri- 
 mate walking in the country ; and of feme 
 others which appear now and then, and 
 in great meal are compenfate for the 
 heaps of inconsequential trafh,. or pot- 
 boilers (as they are called) which are ob- 
 truded upon the public-view ; this may 
 be lamented but cannot be helped, as an 
 exhibition mu ft be made up of what the 
 painters are employed about. I am 
 happy alfc to obferve that feme of our 
 portrait painters are r befides their excel- 
 lence in the line of their profeffionp 
 no lefs remarkable for their unfullieci 
 honour and probity ; thefe I very much 
 refpedt, and I hope they will confider 
 themfelves as entirely out of the ques- 
 tion, when I take the liberty to obferve in 
 general,, that from our too eager atten- 
 tion to the trade of portraits, the pub- 
 lic tafte for the arts has been much 
 depraved,, and the mind of the artiffc 
 often fhamefully debafed, and yet the 
 fele painting of thefe portraits, compa- 
 ratively 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 ratively contemptible as it has appeared 
 to people of elevated minds, to foreigners* 
 and indeed to all, who are not ac- 
 quainted with, and interefled in the ori- 
 ginals, is notwithstanding the means 
 amongft us,, (as the ingenious Webb 
 and others have obferved) by which is 
 obtained a fafflion, a fortune, and upon 
 true commercial ideas, a rank and con- 
 fequence, as the bufinefs and refort of 
 the fhop ; and the annual profits of it 
 are the only efti mates which generally 
 come under confideration. Here then is 
 a fituation ftrongly tempting a fhewy 
 man, to proceed a flep farther, at obtain- 
 ing a more univerfal admiration, if it can 
 be obtained by mean hypocrify, and all 
 the difingenuous refources and quackeries 
 which mufl neceffarily, and as he may 
 think will probably, fupport an artificial 
 confequence thus founded upon the un- 
 liable bafis of folly and vanity. After 
 all this affluence which may arife from the 
 vogue for making portraits, is the whole 
 
 of 
 
( J 3 ) 
 
 of what it will naturally produce * this, 
 as was before hinted, may by little ne- 
 ceffary arts and induftrious puffing, be 
 made to fill up for the moment the little 
 minds of the though tlefs rabble, whe- 
 ther of the polite or vulgar fort, or both, 
 and will even help to confound matters 
 Hill further, and give our names a confe- 
 quence with fome of thofe difpenfers of 
 fame, the book-makers ; who, however 
 knowing in -what they may have really 
 iiudied, can, with a very few exceptions, 
 hardly be coniidered for their knowledge 
 of the arts as in any thing differing from 
 the mere herd : but with thofe who are 
 really intelligent in the arts, all this ex- 
 terior and eclat of appearance will be 
 laughed at, and can avail no more as to 
 the matter of reputation, than the fuc- 
 eeeding in any other fafhionable manu- 
 fadure, where genius and high ability 
 can have had no concern. 
 
 This kind of work is indeed made with 
 paint, &c. fnread upon wood or canvafs* 
 
 and 
 
( H ) 
 
 and fo far vrc can account for the miifake 
 of many of our fhort-fighted literati 5 but 
 30 all the higher refpedts, it comes as far 
 Abort of the art of Rafaelle, and the other 
 great hiflorical painters, as Homer and 
 Milton are from little occasional verfify- 
 ers; or Hippocrates, Harvey and Boerhaave, 
 from dentifts and corn cutters. This 
 then is the mefs of pottage for which 
 thefe Efaus fell their birth-right; and 
 the lofs is furely more than the gain in 
 Such a barter, where the natural paffion 
 for well-deferved glory is meanly facri- 
 iiced to a facticious tbirft of lucre and 
 vanity, with which it is impoffible for 
 the mind to be fatisfied. Thus at jar 
 with the very end and deftination of his 
 faculties, a man's nobler appetites will 
 become his continual accufers, unavoid- 
 ably actuated by envy, and all the bafer 
 paffions, worfe (if we believe that great 
 mailer of life and manners, Horace) than 
 any torments ever devifed by the Sicilian 
 tyrants^ jxis only refource will be in the 
 
 tern- 
 
( ) 
 
 temporary artifices, his cunning may de~ 
 yife for the fuppreffion of his rivals, at 
 the expence of the little that may remain 
 of virtue and integrity j and in this, whe- 
 ther he fucceeds or not, he will, in the 
 end, but give the finifhing blow to his 
 own quiet. 
 
 A man, in inch a wretched fituation, 
 (for wretched it undoubtedly mu it be, 
 notwithftanding all difguifes and appear- 
 ances) would naturally have more of my 
 pity than cenfure, were it not for the 
 great mifchiefs he is fo me times inclined, 
 and often enabled to perpetrate, in ob- 
 ftrudting thepurfuits of genuine legitimate 
 art; a great deal might be ufefully faid on 
 this fubje£t 3 however, for the prefent, I 
 fhall content myfelf with obferving (and it 
 may have its ufe with the rifiog genera- 
 tion of artifts) that lefs pains and trou- 
 ble than is neceffary to fupport debafed 
 art, and a falfe confequence, would, if 
 differently directed, have enfured to them 
 |he real unfading glories of their profef T 
 
 lion. 
 
( i6 ) 
 
 lion, together with what is much more 
 valuable* the additional ferenities of a 
 quiet ua wounded confcience. However, 
 the mifchief that may be done' in this 
 way will be of (hort duration, when the 
 real artift: will recoiled, that he is bound 
 in duty, both to God and his coun- 
 try, to make head againft all fraud and 
 wrong, whatever it may coft him ; our 
 duty is eafily feen, and ought to be, if not 
 joyfully accepted, at leaf!: refpedfully 
 
 fubmitted to ; whether we are martyrs or 
 conquerors, can be no part of our con- 
 cern, as it does not depend upon us ; for 
 the ends of Providence are anfwered fome- 
 times one way, and fometimes the other* 
 Happy thofe whole fphere of adi.on ena- 
 bles them to purfue this line of duty in 
 great matters : but even, they are not in- 
 glorious who ad worthily in the inferior, 
 and more con traded filiations that God 
 has alloted to them. Every man then, 
 in this warfare of life, arts, &c. is either 
 foldier or general, and muft not timidly 
 
 defert 
 
( l 7 ) 
 
 defert his poft, and leave the field in pdf- 
 fefiion of his bafe antagonifts, as was 
 unfortunately the cafe of poor Mr. Hufley ; 
 if he had previoufly taken care to leave 
 (if poflible) fome monument of general 
 manifeftation behind him, the arts would 
 not be upon the footing they are at this 
 day, and thofe who came after him would 
 have had fewer difficulties to ftruggle with. 
 It may be thought by fome, that it is 
 giving too much confequencc to wretched 
 cabals and mifreprefentations, to fuppofe 
 that they could have been fo very efifec~ 
 tual in obftrudting the progrefs of fupe- 
 rior art, and that there is nothing fo very 
 uncommon and peculiar in this matter : 
 as malice, envy, and every kind of bafe 
 attack, have ever conftantly followed 
 great undertakings in all ages of the 
 world, and in every art, and yet have 
 never been able to hurt the credit of 
 either ; that all the fcurrilous attacks, 
 criticifms, and cabals of the fcribblers of 
 the laft age, which gave oecafion to the 
 / B writing 4 
 
 / 
 
( *8 ) 
 
 writing of the Dunciad, and which are 
 fo elegantly lamented in that beautiful 
 little poem printed in the notes 0) could 
 neither prevent Pope from writing, or 
 people of good tafte and good fenfe, from 
 reading and admiring what he had written. 
 But thefe cafes are' in one refpedt very 
 materially different ; for the poffeflbrs of 
 poetical or other literary abilities, are fo 
 far happily circumftanced, that if the 
 means of fubfiftence be once fecured, 
 they can have few or no obflrudlions to 
 prevent the exertion of their talents, 
 compared with thofe that lie in the way 
 of other arts. Rafaelle, M. Angelo, and 
 Carrache, could not have produced their 
 great works, without the Sifline Chapel, 
 the Vatican, and the Farnefe Pallaces : 
 whereas Milton's poem required neither 
 a palace nor a prince, and is as much 
 within the purchafe of the mechanic, as 
 of the fovereign. A great effort of hif- 
 
 (a) While malice. Pope, denies thy page. 
 
 torical 
 
( i9 ) 
 
 torlcal painting, which requires a church 
 or a palace to place it in, and can have but 
 a Angle proprietor, upon whom the whole 
 expence muft fall, is likely to meet with 
 many obftrudtions, to which poems and 
 other literary productions of eafy purchafe 
 are not liable; and notwithftanding that 
 an attention to the beauties of poetry and 
 literature, makes part of every man's edu- 
 cation in this country, yet, if we ihould 
 for a moment fuppofe that a poem was 
 like a pidture, unique, and to be con- 
 fined to the poffeflion of fome one great 
 employer or purchafer, it is very much 
 to be doubted, whether brigue and cabal 
 would not in that cafe have been much 
 more effectual in preventing the great 
 from becoming either employers or pur- 
 chafers ; and whether many excellent 
 productions would not have been fuffo- 
 c^ted in their birth, from which the 
 country at this day derives no fmall re- 
 putation. How much more fatal muft 
 this be in painting, which has the addi~ 
 
 B 2 tional 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 tional diiadvantage of being of recent in- 
 trodudion, as yet hardly naturalized, and 
 confequently not fo generally ftudied and 
 
 undefftood. 
 
 When therefore we reded:, that in the 
 number of thofe who apply to the arts, 
 many muft unavoidably fail of fuccefs ? 
 from the want of natural parts and ge- 
 nius; many more from the want of edu- 
 cation and proper culture ; many others 
 loft in fordid purfuits, in pleafure, indo- 
 lence, &c. there can remain but a few 
 indeed likely to think of ftruggling with 
 the difficulties of elevated art : of this 
 few, feme wait in vain for patrons, who, 
 theugh not always neceffary to thofe who 
 will employ themfelves in mean and or- 
 dinary things, are yet greatly wanting 
 for the furtherance of fuperior views j 
 a very little would do a great deal in this 
 way ; and it is to be hoped, that patro- 
 nage and honourable countenance will 
 not be always flung away without benefit 
 to art, : or credit to either the, country or 
 
 the 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 the donor. But this, added to the other 
 reafons that have been enumerated, will 
 iufficientiy account why fo little has been 
 hitherto done in fuperior art. 
 
 With refped: to hiftorical painting, 
 people will not now give us credit for 
 common-place matter, of which, for a 
 century pad, there has been more than 
 enough all over Europe ; many fubjedts 
 have been long fince exhaufted, by the 
 accumulated ingenuity and induftry of 
 our predeceffors on the Continent. Ar- 
 tifts of no compafs of mind, or genius, 
 are notwithftanding neceffitated to fall 
 into this beaten track, and will content 
 themfelves, as Sterne happily expreffes it, 
 with pouring the fame water from one 
 veffel to another, and think they do 
 fomething when they change particulars, 
 this way or that, from fitting to Handing^ 
 &c. when they alter or add to the mere 
 material, without adding to the fuhjedh 
 But if Carlo Vanloc, Carlo Marratti, 
 Cigniani, Cigoli, &c. had done nothing 
 B 3 more 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 more original than the painting of nati- 
 vities, with the light coming from the 
 child, the affection of the mother, fim- 
 plicity of the Ihepherds, the angels, Jo~ 
 feph, the liable, the ox, the lamb, &c. 
 we ihould have given the praife to Anto- 
 nio Corregio, to whom all this belongs, 
 without paying much regard to the paltry 
 alterations or additions of his barren imi- 
 tators. There are many fubjedls of the 
 Ne w Teftament, which have been already 
 fo hackneyed, that a moment’s infpedtion 
 will convince us, that there is hardly any 
 thing admiffable into them, that has not 
 been executed over and over again ; and, 
 confeq ently, prints and drawings of 
 them within every man’s reach ; fo that 
 for the fame reafon that mere mechanical 
 artifts will run after thefe kind of fubjedls, 
 a Pouffin, a Le Sueur, and all who poffefs 
 a mind and genius adequate to their art, 
 would wifh to avoid them. The Cruci- 
 fixion, though a fubjedl often painted, 
 yet, in the hands of a Pouffin, it acquires 
 
 an 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 an important novelty in tile riling of the 
 Ghofts, the darknefs, &c. this, however, 
 is not always practicable ; and where it is 
 not, fuch fubjeCts will naturally be 
 thrown afide by a great man, as barren 
 and unproductive. It is not by evading 
 the difficulties of the art, by furbiihing: 
 up old inventions, or by putting figures 
 together without any invention at all, that 
 we can rival the great works ; if picture 
 knowledge is new in England, it will not 
 be always fio ; we ought not to build too 
 confidently on the ignorance of the pub- 
 lic, or on the clatter of intrigue and 
 faffiion ; the one is not very durable, and 
 the other reaches but a fhort way. The 
 Majefty of Hiftorical Art requires not 
 only novelty, but a novelty full of com- 
 prehenfion and importance. 
 
 The higher exertions of Art, as in 
 Rafaelle, &c. require, for the devellop- 
 ing of all their beauties, not only fome 
 degree of information in the fpeClator, 
 but alfo that he confiders them with 
 B 4 forme 
 
/ 
 
 ( 24 ) 
 
 iome attention and ftudy $ and thefe 
 artifts were particularly happy in this re- 
 fpedt, as there were a great many people, 
 both in Italy and France, with much 
 leifure and eafe of mind, who paiticularly 
 delighted in thefe ftudies, nd who, by 
 their ingenious explanations, were a kind 
 of ufeful and very agreeable medium be- 
 tween the artifts and the public. It is an 
 abfurdity to fuppofe, as fome mechanical 
 artifts do, that the Art ought to be fo 
 trite, fo brought down to the underftand- 
 ing of the vulgar, that they who run 
 may read : when the Art is folely levelled 
 to the immediate comprehenfton of the 
 ignorant, the intelligent can find no- 
 thing in it, and there will be nothing to 
 improve or to reward the attention even 
 of the ignorant themfelves, upon a fecond 
 or third view j fo much for what was 
 wanting in Hiftorical Art. 
 
 As I had been bred up in this way, 
 had every advantage of ftudy, and time 
 before me, I thought myfelf bound in 
 
 duty 
 
{ 25 } 
 
 duty to the country, to the art, and to 
 my own character, to endeavour at fup- 
 plying this deficiency of a public work of 
 hifiorical art, and to try whether my 
 abilities would enable me" to exhibit the 
 proof, as well as the argument. 
 
 Accordingly, in July 1777, I began 
 the work here exhibited ; and although 
 I was without patron, fortune, or en- 
 couragement, without wages to fubfift 
 on, and with no other affiftance to carry 
 it on, than what I was to derive from any 
 other occafional works that might fall in 
 my way ^ with only thefe to rely on, and 
 with a clear forefight of the many vexa- 
 tious delays, and difficulties that would 
 naturally happen, as well as of the un- 
 derhand malevolent attentions from a cer- 
 tain quarter, which had continually fol- 
 lowed me, and which I well knew would 
 not be wanting induflrioufly to embroil 
 and embitter matters on this occafion ; 
 yet I have to thank God for it, that in the 
 
 maim 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 mam the work went on pleafantly enough, 
 and would have been long fince finifhed, 
 could I have given my whole time to it; 
 however, another year will compleat all 
 I mean to do; but as it is now happily 
 brought fo near it’s conclufion, and that 
 the fubjedk and fcope of the whole may 
 be feen and confidered, I wilhed much, 
 in a work of fuch extent, to adopt the old 
 Greek practice, and whilft it was yet in 
 a ftate of being improved and amended, 
 to avail myfelf of the opinion of the can- 
 did and well-informed part of the pub- 
 lic, before it received the lafl: hand s a 
 genuine unbiafled opinion is always worth 
 fomething ; even the cobler may be of ufe 
 in what appertains to his iaft. 
 
 As in general, the judgment we form 
 on old works of art, is from the number 
 and weight of their excellencies, whereas 
 in the modern, we only take into confide- 
 ration what may be faulty and defective; 
 there is no doubt but many faults and 
 defers will be found in what I have 
 
 done. 
 
( 2 7 ) 
 
 done, forne of them are owing to my want 
 of jfkill to do better, others to want of 
 knowledge in the objector, and feme times 
 perhaps to his want of candour ; others 
 will of courfe be remedied in finifhing 
 the work , there are others alfo, which 
 $re fairly chargeable upon the difficulties, 
 interruptions, and ftraightened circumfcan- 
 ces with which I had to wreflie in carry- 
 ing it on, at the times I could give up to 
 it, being obliged to ftrike much off at a 
 heat, without being able afterwards to 
 indulge myfeif much in fecond thoughts ; 
 however, fome effential advantages are 
 alfo derived from this very cbcumiiance j 
 and let me be permitted to add, that I 
 have a fatisfadtion in believing, that 
 whatever opinion might be entertained, 
 as to the merit of my work, my induffry 
 and laborious perfeveraace will not be, 
 overlooked ^ particularly when it feall 
 be remembered, that mod rr. would 
 have done nothing in fuch a lit nation, un- 
 patronized, with few friends X could 
 
 ferve 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 ferve me, and powerfully and artfully 
 oppofed 5 indeed (to ufe a phrafe facred 
 among fchool boys) I have not had fair 
 play, and hold myfelf in many refpedts 
 to be as yet untried, as the difficulties of 
 the art was the leaf!: part of what I had 
 to encounter. Such then as the work is, 
 my intention was to try how much Ikill 
 and ability, under all thofe difadvantages, 
 I might be able to produce in an extent- 
 five fubjedt, not very diffimilar to that of 
 Rafaelle's, in the Vatican; the experi- 
 ment can do me no diffionour, and I fhall 
 at leaft have the credit of preparing the 
 way, and calling out to this talk, fome 
 man of more genius and better fortune 
 than myfelf It will be found upon trial, 
 that this bow is not for every one to 
 fhoot with ; but whenever the man fhall 
 arrive, who from intenfe and vigorous 
 application, is fundamentally fldlled in 
 the various parts of this very extenfive 
 art, poffe fling alfo the additional advan- 
 tages of a cultivated and capacious mind. 
 
 en- 
 
( 2 9 ) 
 
 enriched with thofe treafuries from the 
 Superior Sciences, that alone can invigorate, 
 and give an extenfion and value to the 
 art ; if further, he fhould from modera- 
 tion, felf-denial, and eftrangement, from 
 the weaknefs, vanities, and impertinence 
 of life, be enabled to employ his whole 
 time and attention in this way, every- 
 thing will be poffible to him. Such an 
 union of qualities is indeed very rarely 
 to be met with, but when it is, I hope, 
 or if that be too much, at lead: I fhall 
 fincerely grieve, if the neceflary means,, „ 
 and the opportunity of exertion fball be 
 witheld from him. 
 
 Every body knows that Rafaelle en- 
 joyed all the advantages the heart of man 
 could wifh for, and had a fair opportu- 
 nity of putting forth all his ftrengtb, in 
 a country which afforded a continual oc- 
 eafion for the exercife of his abilities ^ 
 his profeffion was considered as not lefs 
 neceffary than ornamental, and hi.s great 
 work of the Camera della Senatura , was 
 
 carried 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 carried on under the aufpices of thofe 
 two great and diftinguifhed encouragers 
 of the art, Julius the Second, and Leo 
 the Tenth ; he was affifted in this work 
 by the counfels (fuch as they were) of 
 the great luminaries of that age, Bembo, 
 Caftilione, Bibiena, &c. It confifts of 
 four great pictures reprefenting Theology, 
 01 the Difpute of the Sacramen t ; Philofo- 
 phy, or the School of Athens ; Jurif- 
 prudence, an Allegorical Picture ; and 
 Mount Parnaffus, or Poetry. It is a 
 poor ambition that could content itfelf in 
 the Eighteenth century, with merely 
 avoiding the many faults and errors that 
 learned and knowing men have pointed 
 out in thofe pictures of Pvafaelle’s ; it 
 would be more for the honour of a mo- 
 dern, to endeavour at equalling or out- 
 doing him in thofe great particulars 
 where he is moft excellent, and that this 
 is not only poffible but practicable, is 
 evident from the antique ftatues which 
 are many degrees beyond Rafaelle, in 
 
 the 
 
( 3 1 ) 
 
 the mo ft eflential of thofe very particu- 
 lars in which he liimfelf excelled. The 
 antique ftatues are of a more exalted fpe- 
 cies of character, they have much more 
 beauty, much more of fublimity, and are 
 much more correct. Even in the detail 
 of thofe Pictures of Rafaelle, in the 
 heads, arms, legs, and all the compo- 
 nent parts of his figures, though they 
 are executed with refpedtable ability, yet 
 alfo in thefe parts he is confeffedly in- 
 ferior to the Antique, to the Laocoon, 
 the Gladiator, the Apollo, the Venus, 
 &c. the detail of Rafaelle’s figures can- 
 not even in juftice be preferred to what 
 we often find in Carrache and Domeni- 
 chino ; though thefe great Artifts are by 
 no means to be compared with him in the 
 higher excellencies. 
 
 The principal merit of Painting as well 
 as of Poetry, is its addrefs to the mind ; 
 here it is that thofe Arts are fillers, the 
 fable or fubjedt, both of the one and 
 the other, being but a vehicle in which 
 
 are 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 are conveyed thofe fentiments by which 
 the mind is elevated, the underftanding 
 improved, and the heart foftened. It is 
 in this addrefs to the mind, in the fub- 
 limity, elegance and propriety of the 
 ideas, and in the wife and judicious fe- 
 leCtion of fublime, elegant and happily 
 correfponding forms in the perfonages, 
 characters, exprefiions, &c. that the Ro- 
 man fchool has been acknowledged fupe- 
 rior, not alone to the Hollanders and 
 Flemings, but to the other fchools of 
 Italy alfo; and it is in thefe that Rafaelle 
 is juftly diftingu idled as the foremoft man 
 in the Roman fchool. 
 
 In forming a proper judgment how 
 nearly any modern work has approached 
 this exalted ftaiidard of Grecian perfec- 
 tion, or rather how much a modern work 
 may come fhort of the degree of this 
 Grecian excellence, to which Rafaelle 
 had arrived, it were to be wifhed they 
 could be feen together ; but this not 
 being always poffible, there remains no 
 
 other 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 other method of fair and impartial proce- 
 dure, but to examine, under the fame 
 view, fuch dfential particulars as we can 
 bring together, and many we can ; for in- 
 fiance we may examine them with re- 
 fpedt to the fubjedts, we may compare 
 them as to their dignity, utility, the de- 
 gree of learning, capacioufnefs of mind* 
 force of genius, and knowledge of life 
 and manners, employed in telling their 
 feveral flories. Marc Antonio's print of 
 the Parnaflus, or Aquilla's, will fuffici- 
 ently inform us what Rafaelle has done 
 there; his view of Heaven, in the difpute 
 of the Sacrament, and his School of 
 Athens, of which there is a copy at Nor- 
 thumberland houfe, and the prints of 
 it in every one's poffeffion, where at leaft 
 his flock of ideas, and manner of order- 
 ing the fubjedts, may be feen and confi- 
 dered, as well as in the pictures them- 
 felves. By thus comparing any new work 
 with whatever had been done before i t, 
 we may have a clear view of its compara- 
 
 C 
 
 tive 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 five merits, or demerits : but if we 
 fhall judge of it without reference to any 
 work in aCtual exigence, and fhall mea- 
 fure it by no other ftandard, than fuch 
 notions and expectations as men may per- 
 haps faftidioufly entertain of the mere 
 poffibilities of performance, there will 
 be no likelihood of its giving much fa- 
 tisfaCtion. 
 
 As to what might be expeCted from the 
 remarks and criticifms of artifts, their opi- 
 nions being generally conformable to 
 their own practice, they will no doubt 
 approve or cenfure in proportion as any 
 work is like or unlike their own. The 
 learned Abbe du Eos has fome reflections 
 on the conduCt of artifts in this matter, 
 which appear to me to extend too gene- 
 rally. Painters are like other men, fome 
 more fubjeCt to envy than others ; he 
 fee ms to have forgotten that men may 
 poffefs different kinds of excellence in 
 the fame art, and confequently can have 
 no ground for envy ; and there are, I 
 
 ihould 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 Ihould hope, thofe who are fuperlor to 
 this bafe paffion, whether there was any 
 ground for it or not. However, as his 
 poffible the learned Abbe may be in the 
 right, and as his reflections are curious, 
 and worthy the reader’s attention, it may 
 perhaps not be amifs to infert them here. 
 
 te New performances are approved at 
 <e flrft, by judges of a very differ ejit cha- 
 “ rader, by men of the fame profef- 
 ** flon, and by the public. They would 
 <e foon be rated at their juft value, were 
 <c the public as capable of defending and 
 € * maintaining their fentiment, as they 
 know how to efpoufe the right party. 
 But their judgment is eafily perplexed by 
 ie perfons who make profeffion of the 
 “ art. Now thefe perfons are frequently 
 fubjeft to make a falfe report of things, 
 for reafons which we jfhall give here- 
 €€ after. They therefore throw fuch a 
 mift over the truth, that the public 
 “ continues frequently for fonie time in 
 a ftate of uncertainty or error.— Tho’ 
 C 2 “ the 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 ^ the artifts cannot impofe on others,.. 
 € * fo as to make them take excellent 
 € ‘ things for bad, yet they can make 
 “ them believe that thofe excellent 
 “ things are but indifferent with refpedt 
 “ to others. The error into which they 
 throw the public by this means, with 
 t€ refpedtto a new performance, is a long 
 se while a removing. Till the work be- 
 comes generally known, the prejudice 
 which the decifion of the artifts has 
 “ caufed in the world, balances the fen- 
 timents of judicious and difinterefted 
 6€ perfons, efpecially if it be from the 
 hands of an author whofe reputation 
 61 is not yet eftablifhed.— Boileau's pre- 
 ct didtion in favour of Racine's tragedies, 
 ** is fully accomplifhed, and impartial 
 “ pofterity has declared itfel-f in their fa- 
 “ favour. The fame may be faid of 
 Painters. Not one of them would 
 fC have attained, after his death, to the 
 degree of diftindtion due to his 
 merit, were his fate to be always in 
 
 “ the 
 
( 37 ) 
 
 £€ the power of other painters : but by 
 ec good luck, his rivals are mailers of his 
 € 6 reputation but for a ffiort time , for 
 ** the public take the caufe by degrees 
 into their own hands, and after an im~ 
 “ partial enquiry, does every body juf- 
 tice according to their merit. If 
 great artifts are fo fenfible of jealoufy, 
 “ what me muft we think of indifferent 
 “ ones ?” See Grit. Reflep. Ch. 21, 23, 
 24, and 27. 
 
 If this matter is indeed, as the learned 
 Abbe has reprefented it, it is only to the 
 candid judgment of the public, that the 
 comparitive merit or . demerit of what I 
 have done muft be fubmitted; fuch an 
 examen as I have pointed out, would af- 
 ford entertainment, and is one of the 
 fureft methods of improving the judg- 
 ment of the obferver 5 befides, it would 
 be attended with lefs difficulty than peo- 
 ple feem to be aware of, as it would he 
 Wholly free from the perplexities of pic- 
 ture jargon, and requires little more than 
 C 3 liberal 
 
( 3 ^ ) 
 
 liberal manly information, and fome pa^ 
 tience and attention ; yet, as it will re- 
 quire a little attention, I am too well ac- 
 quainted with the character of the age, 
 to expert that very many of our peo- 
 ple would be at this trouble, even for 
 matters of more importance than pic- 
 tures. Where indolence, precipitation* 
 and modi Hi inattention, and giddinefs, 
 prevail, little, is to be expedted $ except, 
 perhaps, a few 7 general convenient words, 
 as deteftable, execrable, and fo forth. 
 'We muft leave fuch people to the attrac- 
 tion of portraits, which levels all under- 
 ftanding, by requiring none: any one 
 
 perfon can here affedt as many difrelifties, 
 find as many faults, and has to the full as 
 much to fay on fuch an ocoafion, as any 
 other can have ; and with refpedt to the 
 filly folk who coinpofe the tail of fafhion, 
 vanity has here an agreeable opportunity 
 cf fhewing its own importance and inti- 
 macy with the great, by recognizing their 
 likencfs or not, juft as it happens to be 
 
 affected 
 
affeded towards the painter. However, 
 we are not without fome charaders of 
 true tafte, and real difcernment, in whom 
 all the requifites of elegant criticifm meet; 
 and, thank God for it, we have ftill re- 
 maining, amongft the public at large, a 
 greatmany whoare neither preoccupied by 
 the anxieties, or diftradions of accumu- 
 lation, or fquandering, with minds at 
 eafe, and fufficiently under felf- govern- 
 ment, to have all their faculties at com- 
 mand j it is from the unbiased judgment 
 of thefe that, what I am now going to 
 give an account of, muft acquire its re- 
 putation, be it little or much. 
 
( 4 ° ) 
 
 The SUBJECT. 
 
 I N this Series, confifting of Six Pictures 
 on Subjects ufeful and agreeable in 
 themfelves, I have ftill further endeavour*?- 
 ed to give them fuch a connection as 
 might ferve to illuftrate one great maxim 
 or moral truth, viz. that the obtaining 
 of happinefs, as well individual as public* 
 depends upon cultivating the human fa- 
 culties. We begin with Man in a favage 
 ftate, full of inconvenience, imperfection 
 and mifery ; and we follow him through 
 feveral gradations of culture and happi- 
 nefs, which, after our probationary ftate 
 here, are finally attended with beatitude 
 or mifery. The firft is the Story of 
 Orpheus ^ the fecond a Harveft Home* 
 or Thankfgiving to Ceres and Bacchus 5 
 
 the 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 the third* the Vidors at Olympia ; the 
 fourth. Navigation, or the Triumph of 
 the Thames ; the fifth, the Diftributioa 
 of Premiums in the Society of Arts, &c« 
 and the fixth, Elizium, or the date of 
 final Retribution : three of thefe fubjeds 
 are poetical, and the others hiftoricah 
 
( 42 ) 
 
 The 'Firft PICTURE. 
 ORPHEU S. 
 
 r jp H E ftory of Orpheus has been often 
 painted but by foolifhly realizing a 
 poetical metaphor : whatever there was va- 
 luable in it, has been hitherto overlooked. 
 Inftead of treating it as a mere mufical bu- 
 ll nefs, as a man with fo man}' fingers 
 operating on an inftrument of fo many 
 firings, and furrounded with fuch audi- 
 tors as trees, birds, and wild beafts ; it 
 has been my wifh rather to reprefent him 
 as he really was, the founder of Grecian 
 theology, uniting in the fame character* 
 the legifiator, the divine, the philofopher, 
 and the poet, as well as the mufician. I 
 have therefore placed him in a wild and 
 lavage country, furrounded by people as 
 
 favage 
 
SWSi'OdL ‘^UMllAlLdl a 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 favage as their foil, to whom he (as a 
 meflenger from the gods, and under all 
 the energies of enthufiafm,) is pouring 
 forth thofe fongs of inftrudion which he 
 accompanies in the clofes with the mafic 
 of his lyre. 
 
 By the adion of Orpheus, I have en«< 
 deavoured that the fong may appear the 
 principal, and the mufic of the lyre but 
 as an accompany men t and accefiory, which 
 to me feems not only more verifimilar on 
 fuch an occafion, but alfo to be the true 
 and natural way of explaining all thofe 
 paflages in the ancient writers, where fuch 
 extraordinary effeds have been afcribed 
 to mufic. Thofe, who like the ancients, 
 would operate upon the mind, muft look 
 for fomething more fubflantial than fo~ 
 natas, or mere inarticulate tune, which 
 generally reaches no farther than the 
 ear, 
 
 Hall, 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 Hail, golden lyre ! whofe heav’n invented firing 
 To Phcebus, and the black hair’d Nine belongs 5 
 Who in Tweet chorus round their tuneful king, 
 
 Mix with thy founding chords their facrcd Tongs, 
 
 Ev’n Mars, fiern god of violence and war. 
 
 Sooths with thy lulling ftrains his furious breafig 
 And driving from his heart each bloody care. 
 
 His pointed lance configns to peaceful reft. 
 
 Nor lefs enraptur’d each immortal mind. 
 
 Owns the foft influence of enchanting fong. 
 
 When in melodious fymphony combin’d. 
 
 Thy fon Latona, and the tuneful throng 
 „ Of mufes, /kill'd in vSifdom s deepeft lore , 
 
 The fubtle powet’s of verfe and harmony explore, 
 
 1 Pyth. Ode, 
 
 The hearers of Orpheus, who are in 
 what is called the ftate of nature, a ftate 
 far fhort of the golden age and happinefs 
 fome have un wifely imagined, as has been 
 eloquently fhewn by Lucretius (Lib. 5th.) 
 and much more happily by our own ad- 
 mirable Thompfon, (fee Autumn) aremoft 
 of them armed with clubs, and clad in 
 the fpoils of wild hearts, with courage 
 
 and 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 and ftrength, to fubdue. lions and tygers> 
 but without wifdom and /kill, to pre- 
 vent frequent retaliation on themfeives* 
 and their more feeble offspring. At 
 fome diftanee on the other fide of a river, 
 is a woman milking a goat, and two 
 children fitting in the entrance of their 
 habitation, a cave, where they are but 
 poorly fenced againft a lion, who difco« 
 vers them as he is prowling about for 
 prey ; a little farther in the diftanee, are 
 two horfes, one run down by a tyger, by 
 by which I wifhed to point out, that the 
 want of human culture is an evil which 
 extends (even beyond our own fpecies) 
 to all thofe animals which were intended 
 for domeftication, and which have no 
 other defence but in the wifdom and in- 
 duftry of man. In the woman with the 
 dead fawn over her fhoulder, and leaning 
 on her male companion, I wifhed to 
 glance at a matter often obferved by tra= 
 vellers, which is, that the value and efti- 
 mation of women encreafes according to 
 
 the 
 
C 46 ) 
 
 the growth and cultivation of fociety 
 and that.amongft favage nations, they are 
 In a condition little better than beafts of 
 burthen, all offices of fatigue and labour, 
 every thing, war and hunting excepted, 
 being generally referved for them. 
 
 As Orpheus taught the ufe of letters, 
 the theogony or generation of the gods, 
 and the worfhip that was due to them, 
 I have placed before him papers, the 
 mundane egg, &c. a lamb bound, a fire 
 kindled, and other materials of facrifice, 
 to which his fong may be fuppofed pre- 
 paratory : confiderably behind, in the 
 extreme diftance, appears Ceres, as juft 
 lighting on the world. Thefe circum- 
 ftances lead us into the fecond Pidture, 
 which confift of fome of the religious 
 rites eftabliffied by thofe dodtrinal fongs 
 of Orpheus, 
 
 • The Second 
 

 
 
 
 /' 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 Second PICTURE. 
 
 A Grecian Harvejl Home, or Thanks- 
 giving to the Rural Deities Ceres, 
 Bacchus, &c. 
 
 J N the fore-ground are young men and 
 women, dancing round a double ter- 
 minal figure of Sylvan us and Pan, the 
 former with his lap filled with the fruits 
 of the earth, &c. juft behind them are 
 two oxen with a load of corn, a thresh- 
 ing '.floor, &c. on one fide is juft coming 
 in, the father or maftej of the feaft, with 
 a fillet round his head, a white Staff, or 
 ficeptre, &c. his aged wife, &.c. in the 
 other corner is a bafket of melons, car- 
 rots, cabbage, &c, rakes, plough, &c„ 
 and a group of inferior ruftics drinkings 
 &c. If this part Should be thought lefs 
 amiable, .more disorderly, and mean than 
 
 the 
 
( 4 § ) 
 
 the reft, it is what I wifhed to mark.—** 
 
 In the top of the pidture, Ceres, Bac- 
 chus, Fan, &c. are looking down (fee 
 Georgia, book ift.) with benignity and 
 fatisfadlion, on the innocent feftivity of \ 
 their happy votaries, behind them is a 
 limb of the zodiac, with the iigns of Leo, 
 Virgo, and Libra, which mark this feafon 
 of the year. 
 
 In the diftance is a farm houfe, binding 
 corn, bees. &c. male and female employ- 
 ments, courtfhip, marriage, and a num- 
 ber of little children every where. In 
 Ihort, I have endeavoured to introduce 
 whatever could beft point out a ftate of 
 happinefs, fimplicity, and fecundity, in 
 which, though not attended with much 
 eclat, yet, perhaps, the duty we owe to 
 God, to our neighbour, and ourfelves, is 
 much better attended to in this, than in 
 any other ftage of our progrefs ; and it is 
 but a ftage of our progrefs, at which we 
 cannot flop, as I have endeavoured to ex- 
 emplify by the groupe of contending 
 
 figures. 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 figures, in the middle difiance, where 
 there are men w refiling, one of the look- 
 ers on has a difciis under his arm, &c. on 
 the other fide, the aged men are fitting 
 and lying along, difeourfing and enjoying 
 the view of thofe athletic fports, in which 
 they can nfc longer mix ; and which (as 
 We are informed by the ancients) gave 
 irife to thofe wife and admirable national 
 inftitutions, the Olympian, Iftmian, and 
 Nemean games of the Grecians, which 
 makes the fubjeA of the next pidlure. 
 
( 5 ° ) 
 
 Third PICTURE* 
 
 Crowning the Victors at O l ym pi a* 
 
 THAVE taken that point of time* when 
 the Victors in the feveral games* pafs 
 in proceflion before the hellanodicks or 
 judges* where they are crowned with 
 olive* in the prefence of all the Grecians. 
 The three judges are feated on a throne,* 
 which is ornamented with medallions of 
 their great legifiators, Solon* Lycurgus, 
 &c. under which come trophies of the 
 victories of Salamis, Marathon, and 
 Thermopyle, which are not improper 
 objects of commemoration for fuch a 
 place. 
 
 As the Greek chronology was regu- 
 lated by thofe games, one of the judges 
 with his hand ftretched out* is declaring 
 the Olympiad, and the name* family, and 
 
 country 
 
THE DIA0ORIDES VICTORS AT OLYMPIA, 
 
 > '* 
 
 'AAA 
 
 X?. A<A‘ 
 
 
I 5 i } 
 
 tdtintry of the conqueror. At the foot 
 of the throne, oh one lide of the table, 
 on which ate placed the chaplets of 
 olive* and palm branches* there fits a 
 figure, who is jiift going id write down 
 in a fcroll of parchment, what the hel- 
 lanodick is proclaiming j this fcroll ap- 
 pears to be a regifter of the Olympiads; 
 and the names of the conquerors* which 
 Were fet down together j near this table 
 an inferior hellanodick is crowning the 
 vidfcor in the foot race, and putting into 
 his hand the branch of palm j the next 
 figure is a foot racer* who ran armed with 
 a helmet, (pear* and fhield ; the next is 
 a pancratiaft* and the vidtor at the 
 ceftus * then comes the horfe and the 
 chariot. In the chariot is Hiero of Sy- 
 racufe j the perfion who leads the chorus, 
 is Pindar* the old man on the fhoulders of 
 the boxer * and pancratiaft, is Diagoras 
 of Rhodes, who having been often in his 
 younger days celebrated for his victories 
 in thofe games, has now, in his advanced 
 D a &ge* 
 
( 52 ) 
 
 age, the additional felicity of enjoying" 
 the fruit of the virtuous education he 
 had given his children, he being carried 
 round the fladium, on the fhoulders of 
 his two victorious fons, amidft the accla- 
 mations of the people of Greece. Cicero, 
 Plutarch, and other great men, have 
 taken notice of this incident, and one 
 of them mentions the faying of a Spartan 
 on this occafion, which ftrongly marks 
 the great eftimation in which thofe vic- 
 tories were held. Pindar's 7th Olympic 
 ode, is afcribed to this Diagoras. The 
 fpeCtators for the moft part, confift of all 
 thofe celebrated characters of Greece* 
 who lived nearly about that time, and 
 might have been prefent on the occafion; 
 the rearing up of the horfe, which comes 
 next, after the boxer, has by opening 
 that line of figures, furnifhed me with an 
 opportunity of introducing Pericles, 
 whom I wiftied to reprefent in an ac- 
 fionof fome energy, fpeaking to Cimon 
 and there were many differences, and mat- 
 ters 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 tcrs of importance between them; near 
 him are Socrates, Anaxagoras, Euripi- 
 des, &c. who may be fuppofed to be en- 
 tertained with the wifdom and elo- 
 quence of the fpeaker, whilft the profli- 
 gate Ariftophanes is appearing juft be- 
 hind him, attentive to nothing but the 
 immoderate length of Pericles’s head, at 
 which he is ridicujoufiy pointing and 
 laughing, verifying what; the wife man 
 has long ago obferved. He that com- 
 ** eth to feek after knowledge, with a 
 94 mind to fcorn and cenfure, fhall be 
 fure to find matter for his humour, 
 * c but no matter for his inftru&ion.” 
 But my diflike of this bafe character, has 
 I fear witheld me from bringing in 
 enough of his head, to imprefs the idea 
 of his likenefs, to the buft from whence 
 it was taken ; if fa, he may do for any 
 other wretch of this clafs, and there will 
 be found no want of them, upon fimilar 
 occafions, in all times;*' When I painted 
 this figure of Pericles, I knew of no buft 
 D 3 of 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 of him remaining, and had nothing tq 
 follow but that description of him in 
 Plutarch, which amounts to little more 
 than the circum {lance of the great length 
 of his head $ and the late lord Chatham 
 being juft then dead, and there being a 
 ftriking refemblance in the character, and 
 fortunes, of thofe two great men, I was 
 determined to melt them into one figure, 
 and keeping the length of the one, in the 
 upper part of the head, to introduce in 
 the features below, the refemblance of 
 the other. Not long fince, Henry Banks, 
 Efq; gave me a fmall copy of a medallion 
 of Pericles, and Afpafia, the original of 
 which was lately found at Roipe, and is 
 in the hands of that amiable man, and 
 excellent artift, Hamilton the painter, of 
 whofe (kill and great profeffional abilities, 
 ]his country ought to make a better ufe 
 than keeping him raking in cava's , let 
 what would be found in them. 
 
 The man with the bandage over one 
 eye, who is ftrewing flowers, and con- 
 gratulating 
 
{ 55 ) 
 
 gratulating the armed foot-racer, (hews 
 this to be a conteft of glory, and not of 
 rancour ; juft behind the man who is re-* 
 giftering the Olympiads, is Herodotus, 
 with his hiftory of Greece in his hand, 
 and near him, and further in the picture, 
 is one in white, with his finger on his 
 lips, and that fyftem in his hand, which 
 was held by the Pythagoreans, and has 
 been fince revived by Copernicus $ near 
 him ftands Hippocrates, Democritus, &c. 
 behind the ftadium is the altis, where 
 the ftatues of the Vidiors were placed, 
 and the temple of Jupiter Qlympius. 
 In the diftance, is the town of Elis, and 
 the river Alpheus. The balTo relievo, on 
 the chariot of Hiero, is the conteft be- 
 tween Neptune and Minerva, for the 
 naming and patronage of Athens. At 
 one end of the pidiure, is a ftatue of Mi- 
 perva, at the other, a ftatue of Hercules 
 treading down envy, which are compre- 
 lienfive exemplars of that ftrength of 
 D 4 body 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 body, and ftrength of mind, which were 
 the two great objects of Grecian educa-r 
 tion. In the Minerva I have followed 
 the original pafiage in Homer, and Pau- 
 fanius’s defeription of her ftatue by Phi- 
 dias : not to mention other matters, it is 
 not a little furprifing to find that circum- 
 fiance fo proper, and fo truly terrific, of 
 the rim of ferpents rolling round the 
 eg is, omitted in all the ftatues I have fee n 
 of her, except one which is in the Capi~ 
 tol at Rome, though this ftatue is in the 
 other, and more effential refpedls of no 
 great worth, as the majefty, grandeur, 
 and ftyle of proportions of Minerva, are 
 her particular charadteriftics., and not 
 merely her helmet and egis. There is a 
 fine head of a Minerva, in the pofleflion of 
 the earl of Shelburne, which is con- 
 ceived and executed in a mafterly and 
 truly Grecian manner. As to the Her- 
 cules treading down envy, on the other 
 fide, Horace cbferves, that this was Her- 
 cules’s 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 eules’s laft labour, and coft his life before 
 it could be effected $ by the bye, it is no 
 doubt a good and a wife diftribution, 
 that envy fhould continually haunt and 
 pcrfecute the greateft characters ; thought 
 for the time, it may give them uneafir* 
 nefs, yet it tends on the one hand to 
 make them more perfeCt, by obliging 
 them to weed out whatever may be faulty, 
 and occafions them on the other, to keep 
 their gpod qualities in that ftate of con- 
 tinued unrelated exertion, from which 
 the world derives greater benefit, and 
 themfelves in the end, flill greater glory* 
 On the bafement of this ftatue of Her- 
 cules, fits Timantbus the painter, with 
 his picture, which is mentioned by Pliny, 
 &c. of the Cyclops and Satyrs ; as there 
 is no portrait of Timanthus remaining, 
 (from a vanity not uncommon amongft 
 artifts) I fhall take the liberty to fupply 
 him with my own. Gilbert Weft has 
 prefixed to his elegant and fpirited tranfla- 
 
 tion 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 tion of foine of Pindar’s odes, a differ** 
 tation on the Olympic Games, where 
 thofe who may be in want of it, will find 
 much information refpe&ing this favour 
 rite, and fo very celebrated inftitution, of 
 the moft truly illuftrious people that 
 ever graced the records pf mankind. 
 
 The Fourth 
 

.{ 59 ) 
 
 fourth PICTURE. 
 
 Commerce , or the ‘Triumph of the 
 
 HE practice of perfonifying rivers. 
 
 and reprefenting them by a genius, 
 pr intelligence, adapted to their peculiar 
 circumilances, is as ancient as the arts 
 
 S- •' f 1 
 
 of poetry, painting, and fculpture. It 
 has therefore been my endeavour to re* 
 prefent Father Thames, as of a venera- 
 ble, majeflic, and gracious afpedt, fleer- 
 ing himfelf with one hand, and holding 
 in the other the mariner’s compafs ; from 
 the ufe of which, modern navigation has 
 arrived at a certainty, importance, and 
 tnagnitude, fuperior to any thing known 
 in the ancient world; it connedls places 
 the moft remote from each other ; and 
 Europe, Alia, Africa, and America, are 
 thus brought together^, pouring their fe- 
 
 Thame s. 
 
 veral 
 
( 6o ) 
 
 werail prod anions into the lap of the 
 Thames. Sir John Denham, in his ce- 
 lebrated eulogium upon our Hero , has 
 expreffed this with great happinefs. 
 
 u Nor are hrs bleflings to his banks confin’d, 
 
 &c But free, and common, as the Tea or wind \ 
 es When he to boaft, or to difperfe his ftores 
 * fe Full of the tributes of his grateful fhores, 
 cc Yifits the world, and in his Hying tow’rs 
 
 Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours » 
 &s Finds wealth where ’tis, bellows it where it wants, 
 ® c Cities in defarts, woods in cities plants. 
 f* So that to us, no thing, no place is Arrange, 
 fet While his fair bofom is the world’s exchange.” 
 
 The Thames is carried along by our 
 great navigators. Sir Francis Drake, Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, Sebaftion Cabot, and 
 the late captain Cooke of amiable memo- 
 jy, in the character of Tritons ; overhead 
 is Mercury, or Commerce, fummoning 
 the nations together, and in the rear are 
 Nereids carrying feveral articles of our 
 manufactures and commerce of Man- 
 cbefter, Birmingham, &c. if fome of 
 
 thofe 
 
( 6i ) 
 
 thofe Nereids appear more fportive than 
 Induftrious, and others ftill more wanton 
 than fportive, the Pidture has the more 
 variety and I am forry to add the greater 
 refemblance to the truth ; for it muft 
 be allowed that if through the means of 
 an extenfive commerce, we arc formfeed 
 with incentives to ingenuity and induftry^, 
 this ingenuity and induftry is but to© 
 frequently found to be employed in the 
 procuring and fabricating fuch commer- 
 cial matters as are fubverlive of the very 
 foundations of virtue and happinefs. Our 
 females (of whom there are at lead: as 
 many born as males) are totally feamefully^ 
 and cruelly negledted, in the appropria- 
 tion of trades and employments,! this is 
 a fource of infinite and moft extenfive 
 mifchief i and even of the males, the 
 difproportion between thofe who are well 
 and ill employed in this country, is not 
 as it will be when our legiflators feall 
 be as eagerly intent upon preventing evils 
 as our anceftors have been in furthering 
 
 party 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 party views, and obtaining ftate etnolti- 
 ments. Perhaps the mere punifhment of 
 vice, is not the only or the beft method 
 of introducing virtue: however, I have 
 touched this matter lightly, as there is 
 reafon to think that the evil will foon 
 cure itfelf. In the diftance is a view of 
 the chalky cliffs of the coaft of England* 
 fhips, &c. 
 
 As mufic is naturally connected with 
 matters of joy and triumph, and that ac- 
 cording to all neceffary propriety, the re- 
 tinue of the Thames could not appear 
 without an artift in this way, I was happy 
 to find that there was no neceffity for my 
 co-operating with thofe who feem in- 
 clined to difgrace our country by recur- 
 ring to foreigners, whilft we can boaft a 
 native, fo eminently diftinguifhed for his 
 mufical abilities, as dodtor Burney, whom 
 I have introduced here, behind Drake, 
 and Rawleigh, with a — When we refledt 
 upon the expence and attention which 
 our people fo eagerly beftow upon Ita- 
 ( lian 
 
( 6 3 ) 
 
 Han operas, and other foreign mufical en- 
 tertainments, in a language unintelligible 
 to the many, and even but ill underftood 
 by the few, one is almoft tempted to 
 think that our mufieal feelings are very 
 fuperior to thofe of the Italians, fince we 
 appear to the full, in as much extacy from 
 the mere fenfation of hearing only, as the 
 people of Italy are from the joint opera- 
 tion of their ears and their underftandings. 
 'Tis odd enough, that on the banks of the 
 Tyber and the Arno, muiic ffliould necef- 
 farily require words for an exponent, and 
 to be enforced by the language that wa& 
 intelligible and familiar to all whilft we 
 on the banks of the Thames, from our 
 fuperior fenfibility and greater quicknefs 
 of apprehenfion, fhould ftand in no need 
 of any fuch requifition. But the philo- 
 fophical critics will not allow us to rea- 
 fon after this manner ; they will fay, 
 that this very extraordinary relifli is, for 
 the moft part, affediation \ and it is pof- 
 fible they may call it by its right name. 
 
 But 
 
C *4 ) 
 
 Bat if ever the jnufical genius of 6tif 
 iflands Ihould be fufifered to emerge, and 
 that it may be rationally hoped that we 
 too ihould* in our turn, have our .ears and 
 our hearts equally affedted by the fterling 
 vigour and perfuafive fentiments of our 
 own poetry* cloathed in all the harmony, 
 majeflyy and eloquent melting fenfibility 
 of thofe co-operating tones, which form 
 the proper colouring* and give the laft 
 finifh* perfedtion* and energy to that ve- 
 hicle of our fentiments language * if ever 
 thefe things arc likely to come to pafs, it 
 muft be under the aufpices of fuch a 
 leader as Dodtor Burney* whofe plan for 
 eftablifiiing a national fchool of mufic not 
 long fince* at the Foundling Hofpital* 
 which, to all rational people, feemed fo 
 ufeful and pradticable ; and after being 
 unanimoufly voted by the governors, was 
 fet afide by the cabal of a few fanatics 
 only. We might expedt every thing un^ 
 der fuch a diredtor, whofe admirable hif- 
 lory of mufic ihews a mind capacious and 
 
 excur-* 
 
( 6 5 ) 
 
 ©xcurfive, that has left nothing unex- 
 plored from which his art might derive 
 perfection, and appears no lefs fraught 
 with elegant obfervation, and a vigorous 
 difplay of the fpirit, and beauties of our 
 poetry, which his animated tranflations 
 manifeft, than for every kind of agreea- 
 ble and ufeful information refpeCting his 
 own very pleafing art. 
 
 There are two portraits over the fire- 
 places, one by Sir Jolhua Reynolds, of 
 that beft and moft amiable of men. 
 Lord Romney ; the other by Mr. Gainf- 
 borough, of the deceafed Lord Folkftone, 
 y/ho appears from the character he has 
 left behind him, to have been animated 
 by the fame noble virtue and public fpi- 
 rit, fo obfervable in his grandfon the 
 prefent Earl of Radnor. Thefe two por- 
 traits it was my with, after once exhi- 
 biting of them, to have by the next year 
 removed into the committe room, , as the 
 portraits of thofe two prefidents make 
 part of the compofition of my next pic- 
 E ture ? 
 
ic^ftJvcC. 
 
 £ 66 ) 
 
 ttsre, which is that of the Society. This 
 would enable me to compleat my own 
 fcheme for the decoration of the room* 
 by introducing fuch portraits of their ma- 
 jefties, the King and Queen, as would co- 
 operate with the reft of my work. My 
 intention would be to paint his Majefty 
 looking on the folar fyftem, as corn- 
 pleated by the difcovery of the fortunate 
 Mr. Helfar, who might be pointing out 
 the fttuation of the Georgium Sidus : and 
 the Queen employed in one of thofe ami- 
 able adis of real female worth, in which 
 her Majefty is fo very diftinguiftied, and 
 which will ever be followed by the love 
 and veneration of the wife and good. To 
 this end I would beg of the Society, that 
 they would be fo good as to requeft their 
 Preftdency to recommend this Petition, 
 and intreat their Majefties moPc gra- 
 cious compliance. Their Majeftie s 
 have long and fuccefsfully cultivated 
 thofe amiable virtues, which form the 
 main pillar of my work, and the 
 
 King 
 
( 6 7 ) 
 
 King loves the art, and has for fome time 
 paft been the only patron and encourager 
 of the great line of hiftory, which in this 
 age and country ftands fo much in need 
 of fupport and countenance. I ffiall molt 
 heartily rejoice if the giddinefs, diffipa- 
 fion, and worthleffnefs of the time may 
 fo far fubfide, as to fuffer this moil: graci- 
 ous example to he better attended to, • and 
 more imitated by his fubjedts, whether I 
 fhall derive any advantage from it or not ; 
 indeed my hopes, refpedting myfelf, are 
 now next to nothing, I ffiall perhaps fe~ 
 cure a kind word from pofterity, for the 
 goodnefs of my intentions^ but that is 
 all j the fadtion againft me is five hun- 
 dred odds, and they and their affiftants 
 are too extenfive in their influence, and 
 too induftrious not to be an overmatch 
 for the little vigilance of indifferent fpec- 
 tators, or for any exertions of mine in my 
 own defence, which are daily growing lefs 
 and lefs ; I am heartily fick of the fcuffle; 
 
 E % for 
 
( 6 ! ) 
 
 for if in the number of people of all 
 ranks, that I have occafionally known in. 
 the courfe of near fourteen years, it has 
 never been in my power to acquire or to 
 preferve the friendfhip and countenance 
 of any who could have been ferviceable 
 to me, either as a patron or employer ; 
 and notwithstanding all my endeavours, 
 none have been duffered to remain with 
 me but thofe, who however well they 
 might with me, had it not in their power 
 to advance either my interefl; or charac- 
 ter. I am the more unreferved in laying 
 open this matter to public view, as ’tis 
 rather of a curious nature, and may be 
 hereafter of ufe, as perhaps it may enable 
 me to preferve the countenance and 
 friendfhip of fome very diftinguifhed 
 characters, who have much interefted 
 themfelves about me and my workon a 
 late occafion. I want words to exprefs 
 my grateful fenfe of the kindnefs and 
 friendly zeal of Mr. Locke, and of the 
 
 Earl 
 
( 6 9 ) 
 
 Earl of Radnor, of the honour done me 
 in the interference of his Grace the 
 Duke of Richmond and the Earl of 
 Rriftol, and I £hall not foon forget the con- 
 duct of my amiable friend Mr. Siward, 
 Dr. Hunter, and fome others on this 
 occafion : it would alfo much grieve me 
 if by any underhand artifices, I fhould 
 lofe the good favour of Mrs. Montagu, 
 of Lady Juliana Penn, of his Grace the 
 Duke of Northumberland, of the Earl 
 of Percy, and of many other excellent 
 characters to whom I have had the ho- 
 nour of being in fome meafure known 
 in the courfe of this work. I have 
 been often divining as a matter of cu- 
 rious fpeculation, in what manner any 
 perfon who might value either abilities 
 or integrity could be fet againft me $ 
 
 for let criticifm go as it may, perhaps 
 but few of my cotemporaries can be 
 faved ; if I am damned for want of abi- 
 lities in my profeffion to which I have 
 
 E 3 been 
 
( 7° ) 
 
 been fo much devoted as to give my 
 friends but little trouble, and myfelf 
 little lolicitude about the other concerns 
 of life. The kind reader will pardon 
 io much about myfelf, but I have been 
 greatly injured, and could fay no lefs* 
 
 Fifth 
 
/ 
 
( 7 1 ) 
 
 Fifth PICTURE. 
 
 fhe J)iJlribution of Premiums in the 
 Society of Arts , &c 9 
 
 T HE diftribution of Premiums in 
 a Society, founded for the patrio- 
 tic and truly noble purpofes of railing up 
 and perfecting thofe ufeful and ingenious 
 arts in their own country, for which in 
 many inftances they were formerly obliged 
 to have recourfe to foreign nations, forms 
 an idea piCturefque and ethical in itfelf, 
 and makes a limb of my general fubjedt, 
 not ilPfuited to the other parts, 0) 
 
 The 
 
 (a) It muft give no fmali pleafure to a man of any phi- 
 lantrophy, to find that this truly ufeful inftitution, is be-i 
 come an object of imitation in other countries. Our be- 
 ing at war with the people of France and Spain, ought 
 not, does not prevent our heartily rejoicing, in any be- 
 nefit they may derive from us, in furthering the views 
 of happinefs and ingenuity ; read in the Nouvelle de 
 
 la, 
 
( 7 2 ) 
 
 The fitting figure in the corner of the 
 pidture, who holds the inftrument of the 
 inftitution in his hand, is Mr. Shipley, 
 whofe zeal for whatever is of publick 
 benefit, was very inftrumental in the firft 
 framing of this Society. One of the two 
 
 farmers, 
 
 !a Republique des Lettres et des Arts, Paris, Ie premier 
 Juillet, 1781 . il L’example donne par l’Anglettere a 
 deja ete imite dans d’Autres Pays. Tout Ie Monde con- 
 noit id l’inftitution de la Societe de Emulation, que l’on 
 travaille, dit on a relever aujourdui. La Republique de 
 Geneva en a adopt? une femblable : il exifte a Madrid, 
 foulle tit re de Lof amigos del Pays , les amis du Pays, depujs 
 trois ans, avec le meme but, une aflbciation, qui dans ce 
 court efpace de terns, a pris une ferme^-confiftance, efcteft 
 fmgulierement etendue:” it is further obferved in the 
 fame paper, where the regifter of premiums given by 
 our Society in London is mentione d. u 11 n’eft point de 
 Sujet plus digne de 1’attention publique, dans un moment 
 ou tous les efprits fie portent avec ardeur vers l’avance- 
 jnent d.es Sciences & des Arts, que le comte rendu des 
 progrefs de cette Societe. Le fpe&acle des bons effets 
 qu’elle a produits, repofe agreablement Poeil fatique de 
 toutes les horreurs de laquerre. Ilvoit que les rnaux 
 |es biens fe balancent, & l’on n’eft plus tente de medire 
 de l’efpece humaine, quand dans le meme Pays ou fe for- 
 gent les fers defines a I'Araerique, et les foudres qui doj- 
 yen£ embrafar la terre $ on voit tant de mains bienfafantes 
 
 Sc 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 farmers, who are producing fpecimens of 
 corn to Lord Romney, the prefident, is 
 Arthur Younge, Efq; the very knowing 
 and ingenious author of the Farmer’s 
 Tours, &c. Near him is Mr. More, fe- 
 cretary to the Society ; on one fide of 
 Lord Romney is the Hon. Mr. Marfliam, 
 Y. P. on the other, and between him and 
 his royal highnefs the Prince of Wales, 
 who is habited in the robes of the Garter, 
 is Salifbury Brereton, Efq; V. P. to- 
 wards the centre of the pidture is a diftin- 
 guilhed example of female excellence, 
 Mrs. Montagu, who is earneftly recom- 
 mending the ingenuity and induftry of a 
 young female, whofe work fhe is pro- 
 le Patriotiques, s’occuper uniquement de ranimer l'agri- 
 culture, vivifiet le commerce, etendre les joujflances de 
 1’homme, Sc multiplier les fources du bonheur univerfal 
 <en multipliant par tout les lumicres* l/amour dubien 
 public qui fermente dans routes les tetes en Anglettere y a 
 developpe le plus grands mdyens pour vaincre les obftacle 
 que le fol, le climat et cent caufe phyfiques et morales op- 
 pofoient m bonheur de fes Habitans. 
 
 ducing $ 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 ducing ; around her ftand the late ducheft 
 of Northumberland, the earl of Percy, V.P, 
 Jofhua Steele, Efq* the ingenious 
 author of that admirable treatife on the 
 Melody of Englifh Speech. Sir George 
 Saviile, V. P. Dr. Hurd, bifihop of Wor- 
 cester, Soame Jennings, and James Har- 
 ris, Efqrs, of lady Betty Germaine, Mr, 
 More, after long delaying me, could not 
 get any pifture. Near Mrs, Montagu 
 ftand the two beautiful ducheffes of Rut- 
 land and Devonfhire ^ and if I have been 
 able to preferve one-half of thofe winning 
 graces in my piefture, that I have fo often 
 admired in the amiable originals, the 
 world will have no reafon to be d iflatis - 
 lied with what has been done. Between 
 them I have placed that venerable fage. 
 Dr. Samuel Johnfon/who is pointing out 
 this example of Mrs. Montagu, a's a mat- 
 ter well worthy their grace’s moft feriou§ 
 attention and imitation. My admiration 
 of the genius and abilities of this great 
 inafterof morality, Dr, Johnfon, cannot 
 
 hq 
 
C 75 ) 
 
 be more than it is $ but my eftimation of 
 his literary abilities is next to nothing* 
 when compared with my reverence for hi§ 
 confiftent, manly and well-fpent life : fo 
 long a writer* in fuch a town as London* 
 and through many viciffitudes, without 
 ever being betrayed into a lingle mean- 
 nefs, that at this day he might be 
 afhamed to avow. Above all that extra- 
 ordinary flretch of virtue that induced 
 him to be fo Angularly active in affifting 
 and bringing forward all his competitors 
 of worth and ability* particularly at that 
 period of their reputation, when it was 
 eafy for him to have crufhed them, if he 
 had been fo inclined. In the hiftory of 
 the Arts, we find but a few examples of 
 the practice of this (apparently very diffi- 
 cult) virtue ; Rafaelle, at Rome, was in. 
 this, as In other things, noble, gene- 
 rous, and becoming $ the admirable, can- 
 did, and confcientious procedure of the 
 Carracches, at Bologna, affixing and 
 bringing forward the Guido's, the Do- 
 
 mem- 
 
( 7 6 ) 
 
 menichino’s, the Lanfranc’s, See . and 
 perhaps one or two other examples, is all 
 we have to boafl ; but we every where 
 meet with thofe who are all virtue, can- 
 dor, and amiability, out of their pro- 
 feffion, where there is no rivalfhip, though 
 they fcruple not to pradlife every bafenefs 
 and treachery within, when it can be done 
 with fufficient concealment 3 and that the 
 complaints of the injured may be made 
 to appear nothing more than the barkings 
 of envy, and m ere profeffional clamour. 
 
 Further on is his grace the duke of 
 Richmond, V. P. and near him is my 
 former friend and patron Edmund Burke, 
 Bfq; to the converfation of this truly 
 great man, T am proud to acknowledge, 
 that I owe the beft part of my education. 
 Providence threw me early in his way ; 
 and if my talents and capacity had been 
 better, the public might have derived 
 much fatisfadlion and fome credit from 
 the pains he bellowed upon me : it was 
 he that maintained me whilft I was a~ 
 
 broad. 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 broad, during my fludies ; and he did not 
 difcontinue his very falutary attentions 
 until my return, when it might be fup- 
 pofed I could no longer Hand in any need 
 of them. Further on is Edward Hooper 
 and Keane Fitzgerald, Efqrs. and vice- 
 prefidents : his Grace the Duke of Nor- 
 thumberland, the Earl of Radnor, Wil- 
 liam Locke, Efq; and Dr. Hunter, are 
 looking at fome drawings by a youth, 
 who had obtained the premium of the 
 filver pallet ; behind him is a boy with 
 a port-folio under his arm, in whofe 
 countenance and aftion I wifhed to mark 
 dejedion and envy, as he is attending to 
 the praifes they are bellowing on the 
 fuccefsful boy ; the clergyman behind is 
 Dr. Stephen Hales, V, P. author of Ve- 
 getable Staticks, &c. a man, by the tefti- 
 mony of all that know him, not lefs emi- 
 nent for his piety and virtue, than for his 
 ingenuity and great philofophical acqui- 
 fitions ; behind him is the late Lord Rad- 
 nor, V . P* and Lord Folkftone, who was 
 
 the 
 
( 7 ® ) 
 
 the firft prefident of the Society, The 
 Society having lately elected general Elliot 
 into their prefidencyi I fhall^ if poffible* 
 endeavour to find a place for him in this 
 pidure : the public are much indebted to 
 this glorious charader, and I am very 
 ferry not to be able to difeharge my part 
 of this debt, in a manner more adequate 
 to my own wifhes. I am forry, from the 
 want of time and room* to have been ne- 
 ceffitated, in the pidure of the Grecian 
 Vidors, to omit another great military 
 charader, whofe virtue^ though lefs for- 
 tunate, is not the lefs glorious : had the 
 means of general Paoli been equal to the 
 greatnefs of his foul, Corfica would have 
 had its Timoleon as well as Sicily s and 
 his amiable private virtues, which attrad 
 fo much love and veneration even from 
 ftrangers, would have had their full 
 Weight and currency amongft his own 
 people. The great kingdom of France 
 might have found occafions of interfe- 
 rence, that would do them more credit 
 
 with 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 With pofterily. I am alio not a little- 
 mortified at being obliged x (from the fame 
 caufe, want of room) to omit a very in- 
 terefting matter in comparative anatomy* 
 which it was my intention to have intro- 
 duced in the hands of that hero in the 
 fcience, Mr. John Hunter : how fortu- 
 nate, or rather how providential, that a 
 genius, indefatigable and penetrating like 
 his, fhould have met with in his brother 
 the doCtor, juft fuch another to form and 
 give it a direction : and that the fame ex- 
 ertions which give being to a virtuous 
 affection amongft individuals, will be alfo 
 productive of advantage to the public, to 
 the arts, and to knowledge in general* 
 In the back ground appears part of the 
 water-front of Somerfet Houle, St. Paul’s, 
 &c. It was my original intention to 
 bring in a much greater number of por- 
 traits., as we have many other illuftrious 
 living characters, whofe likenefs pofterity 
 will enquire after 3 for notwithftanding 
 the common cant of decrying living 
 
 worth. 
 
( 8o ) 
 
 worth, we have ftill amongft us, poets 
 worthy of every rnufe ; the fock and the 
 bufkin are ftill worn, without any dimi- 
 nution of their luftre. The philofophic 
 dignity, the eloquence, and the impar- 
 tial manly fpirit of fome late writers of 
 hiftory, has given the laft finifh to the 
 national character in this way • and whilft 
 the refearches of Boyle have any credit 
 amongft the lovers of philofophy, what 
 lias been lately added is not likely to be 
 overlooked. Criticifm and philological 
 knowledge were, perhaps, never treated 
 with better ability, than by the writers 
 of our own time. What an acquifition 
 has knowledge and literature lately re- 
 ceived from thofe great luminaries that 
 have blazed out in Scotland. Even our 
 women, what encomiaft could exceed in 
 fpeaking of the perfections of many of 
 them. I hope it will be excufed me if I 
 juft point at one, who, to the fhame and 
 lofs of the public, is buried in a retire- 
 ment at actually making two- 
 
 penny 
 
( 8i ) 
 
 penny books for children ; but appear- 
 ances may deceive us ^ fome epic or other 
 great work is, I truft, in hand, as the 
 folace of retirement, which will one day 
 verify the obfervation of a mufe like her 
 own. 
 
 So virtue giv 5 n for loll, 
 
 Deprefs’d, and overthrown, as feem’d. 
 
 Like that felf-begotten bird 
 In the Arabian woods imboft. 
 
 That no fecond knows nor third. 
 
 And lay e’re while a holocauft. 
 
 From out her afhy womb now teem’d. 
 
 Revives, reflourifhes, then vigorous mo ft 
 When moft una&ive deem’d, 
 
 And tho* her body die, her fame furvives 
 A fecular bird ages of lives. 
 
 Leifure will, I hope, be founds the 
 world of imagination lies ftill before her, 
 and there is no region of it which Mrs. 
 Barbault’s mufe may not appropriate to 
 itfelf. However interefting it might be 
 to fome affedtionate parents to have fuch 
 talents employed in the wife and virtuous 
 
 F culture 
 
( 82 ) 
 
 culture of a few children, yet the thing 
 is not right 3 talents, like her’s, belong 
 to the country at large and to the age* 
 and cannot, in juftice, be monopolized, 
 or converted into a private property.— 
 But what a country, what an age do I 
 fpeak of. Has ours any honeft claim 
 upon abilities and genius ? O fflame and 
 infamy upon the numberlefs ten’s* and 
 thirties of thoufands of annual income 
 that furrcund her, and can fuffer fuch 
 talents to feek fhelter in a paltry fchooh 
 Can they anfwer it to their country ? and 
 does the fovereign difpofer of all things 
 give affluence to corrupt the world with 
 it, to fcatter it amongft pimps, gamblers* 
 &c. in diffipation and vagrant expenfive 
 ramblings from one lounging place to 
 another ; the making a figure* living in a 
 ftyle, dafhingout* the being confpicuousin 
 the ton, in the circle of diffipation ; thefe 
 are the noble objects which take up fo 
 much of their time, their attention, and 
 their fortunes, as render them utterly 
 
 jnca- 
 
( 8 3 ) 
 
 Incapable of being of the leaft fervice to 
 people of genius and abilities, to the re- 
 putation of their country* or to their 
 pofterity* who are likely to inherit no- 
 thing from them but broken fortunes and 
 an evil example ; and to thefe they facri- 
 lice all the amiable charms of domeflic 
 life, and the graces of focial friendly con- 
 verfation. 
 
 We poflefs advantages that make many 
 things poffible to us^ that could not have 
 been effected in the rude times of our 
 anceftors. Helfar's and Cooke's might 
 now be fuccefsfully employed in ex- 
 ploring the unknown regions of air and 
 fea 5 and many Chatterton’s, &c. &c. 
 might be refcued from deftrudtion, in 
 whom we might fee revived the fpirit 
 of a Homer, a Pindar, a Rafaelle. When 
 we reflect upon what might poffibly have 
 been done with the thoufands that are 
 fquandered on Fetes, and other nonfen- 
 fical parade and mummery, of which not 
 a veftige remains even for the next morn- 
 F a ing. 
 
( §4 ) 
 
 ing, except lafiitude and ennui ; how 
 aftonifhing ! it would appear as if all the 
 nobler feelings were quite obliterated, and 
 that fuch people consider themfetves as 
 fent here merely to fhew how ridiculous 
 human nature can be ; and with what a 
 daring impiety it can trample under feet 
 every duty which relates either to this 
 
 world, or to — . But let the divines 
 
 urge the rigid account that will hereafter 
 be demanded of thefe good ftewards, of 
 the manner in which they have difpofed 
 of the great overplus of wealth that has 
 been entrufted to them, whether it has 
 been laid out for the benefit or for the 
 curfe of the community ; I fhall only 
 take notice, that although in the nature 
 of things, the great cannot be artifls 
 themfelves, and cannot (generally fpeak- 
 ing) be of fervice to the community by 
 any labours of their own : yet there re- 
 mains to them a fphere of adtion not lefs 
 glorious and interesting to mankind in 
 affifting thpfe that can. 
 
 The 
 
( 8 5 ) 
 
 The exalted and truly noble difpofition 
 of Ifabella of Spain, who by pawning her 
 jewels, enabled Columbus to difcover the 
 new world, has thus made herfelf a co- 
 partner with him, in the glory of the 
 achievement. Without this concurrence 
 of the great and the wealthy nothing can 
 be done, they only can furnifh the means 
 of vigorous exertion to thofe whom nature 
 and ftudy have peculiarly fitted for it, and 
 they will fully evidence their own virtue 
 and wifdom, not alone in furnifhing the 
 means, but alfo, in what is of equal con- 
 fequence, in wifely chufing the man, 
 whofe fuperior abilities are beft calculated 
 to make a glorious ufe of thofe means. 
 
 We have, in the hiftory of the arts, and 
 in moil countries, many examples where 
 great fums have been expended without 
 honour or advantage, but rather the con- 
 trary. The great and the wealthy too 
 often love flattery, and require attentions, 
 which fometimes amount to what might 
 be considered as no fmall facrifices 5 when 
 F 3 this 
 
( *6 ) 
 
 this is the cafe, the high-fpirited artift of 
 genius and abilities (who pe~h ;s may 
 alfo he curled with foe* 11" t of this 
 folly himfelf) is unfort • vai.iy not fo 
 likely to fall in the way of f'ch employ- 
 er?, as thofe artifts of a contrary cba- 
 racier ; he will wait ur i he is fought 
 for , and meannefs, cunning, foiicitation, 
 and circumvention will then fucceed^ 
 though nothing folid and of real worth 
 can ever be expected from any labours of 
 the weak artift, though cunning man, 
 that has had the fkill and dexterity thus 
 to infinuate himfelf into the good graces 
 of patrons and great employers, and the 
 honour of their patronage, the wifdom of 
 their advice (if there be any wifdom in 
 it) and the great fu ms they may expend, 
 will be all loft. Self-pride will, no 
 doubt, be much gratified in giving fame 
 and fupport to this dudlile thing of their 
 own creation, and in oppofing it to what- 
 ever might dare to lie in its way, the un- 
 protected man of genius and real ability, 
 
 whom 
 
 i j 
 
( 8 7 ) 
 
 whom Providence has fent, will, perhaps, 
 be retarded and obftrudted in the exercife 
 of his talents 3 he may even be borne 
 down and oeriflv but it will be impoffi- 
 ble to f apply his place. Whatever credit 
 then is to be derived from the arts, can 
 only be expedted from the liberal, unre- 
 ftrained employment of men of extenfive 
 genius and high ability, whom it requires 
 feme fkil! to diftinguifti from his forward 
 counterfeit, made up of plaufibility and 
 cunning, upon whomattentionand expence 
 will be thrown away. Eut let us not de- 
 fpair of the public ; the proper employer 
 and the proper artift, may happen, fome 
 time or other, to meet in England as they 
 have in other countries ; if we have much 
 of vice, and folly to obftrudt it, there is 
 alfo much of what is good amongft the 
 people at large ; and fome fhining exam- 
 ples of virtue, and many of abilities, 
 even ftill remaining amongft thofe of the 
 higher order to forward it ; and perhaps 
 there is as much neceffary knowledge and 
 F 4 infer- 
 
( 88 ) 
 
 information of every kind diffeminated 
 in this country, for the railing a fuper- 
 ftruCture of art, as had been known in 
 any other age or nation : the experiment 
 is worth the labour of the artift, and the 
 expence of the employer, who might 
 wi (h to acquire reputation for their coun- 
 try, and give themfelves an intereft with 
 pofterity, as the great men of other na- 
 tions had done before them. 
 
 It is worth obferving, that nptwithftand- 
 ing the ravages of time and barbarians 
 and the poverty of Italy at prefent, which 
 has occaiioned the difperfion of fo many 
 things, yet vaft fatisfaCtion has been, is* 
 and will be derived from the numberlefs 
 remains of Grecian, Roman, and Italian 
 perfection in every art, and in all the va- 
 rious ways in which the genius and abi- 
 lities of their people have been employed. 
 All cultivated people feel themfelves much 
 indebted to the greatnefs of foul (or to 
 the vanity as fome love to call it) of an 
 Agoftino Ghigi, a Federigo Gonzagu, of 
 
 th§ 
 
( 8 9 ) 
 
 the Medicean, the Farnefe and other il« 
 luftrious families, and great individuals 
 that have appropriated the overplus of 
 their wealth in this honourable way upon 
 permanent and lading objedts, from 
 whence not only themfelves but their pof- 
 terity alfo have derived fatisfa&ion and 
 benefit. What would Rome, Florence, 
 Bologna, and many other parts of Italy 
 he at this day deprived of this inheri- 
 tance $ formerly many of our nobility 
 and gentry had laid out confiderable fums 
 in making collections of antient art, but 
 unfortunately thefe are moftly buried in 
 the country, where the public can derive 
 little or np advantage from them. The 
 profeffors of medicine have (independent 
 of their profeffional Ikill) been many of 
 them eminently diftinguifhed for various 
 knowledge and great worth, and in no 
 country more fo than in England ; our 
 obligations to the public fpirit of a Sir 
 Hans Sloane, and a Dodtor Mead, will be 
 long remembered j and I am happy on 
 
 this 
 
( 9 ° ) 
 
 tb is occafion, in returning my fincere 
 thanks to that ornament of our Academy* 
 and father of Englilh anatomy. Dr. Hunter* 
 for the great affiftance my pictures have 
 received from the ufe of his moil exten- 
 live and invaluable coiledtion. But not to 
 wander too far from my fubjedt, we ppf- 
 fefs many iliuftrious characters, with 
 whofe portraits I ftiould have been happy 
 taenoble my work, but circumftanced as J 
 was, I found to my forrow, that waiting 
 the leifure of fo many people, would 
 bring with it too great a delay arid ex- 
 pence, not of time only, but of fome- 
 what elfe which I was lefs able to afford | 
 isven with the few that I have painted, 
 this picture has coft me more time than 
 all the reft of the work ; this apology 
 will I hope fuffice for my having pro- 
 ceeded no farther, and I can add to it 
 with truth, that though there are many 
 who can judge more accurately of worth 
 abilities than I can pretend to, yet no 
 
 man 
 
( 9 1 ) 
 
 man has more fincere love and reverence 
 for therm 
 
 In the corners of the pictures are fpe- 
 cirqens of cotton^ indigo, &c. for the 
 cultivation of which, particularly in the 
 colonies in America,, the Society had at 
 different times given premiums and boun- 
 ties to a very confiderable amount : there 
 are alfo gun barrels of white tough iron^ 
 maps, charts, madder, cochineal, a gun- 
 harpoon for finking whales with more 
 certainty and lefs danger, Englifh carpets* 
 and large paper of a loofe and fpongy 
 quality, proper for copper-plate printings 
 which is, and has long been a very great 
 defideratum, as our engravers (whofe 
 works are now a confiderable article of 
 commerce) are for the mod part obliged 
 to make ufe of French grand aigle and 
 colombiez, at fix times the price of what 
 paper of the fame quality might be ma- 
 nufactured for in England. 
 
 As the Society have given premiums 
 for hiftory ? painting, and fculpture, I 
 
 have 
 
( 92 ) 
 
 have introduced a pidlure and a ftatue in 
 in the back ground ; the pidture of which 
 part only is feen, is the fall of Lucifer, 
 a defign which I made about five years 
 fince, when the Royal Academy had fe- 
 ledted fix of us to paint each a pidture for 
 St. Paul’s cathedral ; the ftatue is the 
 Grecian Mother dying, and, attentive 
 only to the fafety of her child, is putting 
 it back from her breaft, after which it is 
 ftriving. 
 
 As to this pradtice of giving premiums 
 in the polite arts : from all that I have 
 been able to obferve in Italy and France 
 ?s well as in England, it has appeared a 
 clear and indubitable fadt, that the rage 
 far inveigling a great number of young 
 people into thole arts, by the diftribution 
 of leffer premiums and bounties for the 
 inferior branches, is of all other caufes 
 that which is moft likely to bring about 
 the fpeedy deftrudtion of whatever is va- 
 luable in the arts, particularly in that of 
 painting : In fculpture the Tyro’s cannot. 
 
 foolifhly 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 fooliflily run away from ftudies into 
 which they have but juft entered, in or- 
 der to commence mafters, and make mo- 
 ney and importance by padling in the 
 portraits of their relations, friends, &c« 
 The attention of the young fculpture is 
 extended to the whole figure, and to the 
 naked figure, they keep the antique and 
 ideal, i. e. general nature continually m 
 view, and thefe are the only objedts of 
 their imitation, which by the way is the 
 true reafon of what has been obferved in 
 our academy of the ftudents in fculpture, 
 being fo much fuperior in the ftyle of 
 their works to thofe in painting. It 
 would better become a fociety of wife and 
 difcreet men, who can have no ambition 
 to gratify but that of being real benefac- 
 tors to the public, to annihilate all thofe 
 juvenile premiums, and to fix the prize 
 at the end rather than at the beginning of 
 the race; they could then afford to furnifh 
 one good premium every fecond or rather 
 every third year, and the decilion ought 
 
 to 
 
( 04 - ) 
 
 to be left to the judgment of the Royal 
 Academy who ought to be fworn for that 
 purpofe; and the work whether picture or 
 llatue, might be bellowed if facred to 
 fome parifh church ^ if profane* to fome 
 public hall, by this means they would 
 really encourage in the art, what ought 
 to be encouraged, they would oblige, 
 they would encreafe their influence, and 
 confequently their power of being fer= 
 viceable to the country. 
 
 Such a Society would do well to fhew 
 a good example, and take the lead in this 
 matter * it was to a circumftance of a 
 fimilar nature, though vaftly inferior and 
 more contracted, which took place be- 
 tween the Goldfmith’s company, and 
 Chapter of Notre Dame in Paris, that 
 the French fchool of painting is indebted* 
 if not for its very exiftence at leaft for a 
 great part of the glory it has obtained. 
 We have been for centuries without ar~ 
 tills of any capacity ; and now that the 
 wilh of the nation is gratified, and that 
 
 we 
 
C 95 ) 
 
 we have thofe whofe abilities would do 
 honour to any age or country, how are 
 they employed ? (hall their abilities be 
 fuffered to perifli with them, (hall we go 
 on fowing upon what is already fown, 
 negledtful of the harveft time when we 
 fhould reap and gather in : to what end 
 do we form infiitutions for the multi- 
 plying artifts, inveighing them by medals 
 and other paltry matters, into a profeffion 
 where they are to be of no ufe from want 
 of employment ; is this ftricTiy moral and 
 becoming patriots and benefactors of 
 their country l even if there was work 
 for them, is it not evident that one of 
 the great caufes, that brought about the 
 fpeedy deftrudtion of the arts, both in 
 Italy and France, was their being deluged 
 by the great numbers bred up in their 
 public academies. On enquiring into 
 this matter on my return from Italy, I 
 obtained at Paris through the means of 
 my very amiable, ingenious, and I am 
 grieved to add, deeeafed friend Colonel 
 
 Drum- 
 
( 9 6 ) 
 
 Drumgoold, and Mr. Nelfon, director 
 
 of the Gobelins, the following infor- 
 mation : 
 
 II y a a Paris 
 
 L’Academie R aIe Eleves — — ao^ 
 
 L’Acadamie de St. Luc — — 150 
 
 Ecole aux Gobelins — — 50 
 
 Ecole gratuite fous 
 
 LlnfpeCtion de la Police — 1500 
 
 Ecole des freres dans les Parodies 1 200 
 (Tout cela eft gratuit) — 3100 
 
 II y a outre cela 600 Artiftes donnant 
 le^on pour de Targent. Conter a cha- 
 cun 4 Eleves — — — 2400 
 
 3 100 
 
 t 
 
 55 °° 
 
 Perhaps I might fpare myfelf the trou- 
 ble of obferving, that the difproportion 
 thefe numbers bear to the quantity of 
 work that is to be done, is productive of 
 many bad confequences, both in their 
 work and in their morals ; and fo little 
 work muft fall to the {hare of many, as 
 
 leaves 
 
( 97 ) 
 
 leaves them without a fufficient opportu- 
 uity for the cultivation of their abilities * 
 for let it be always remembered that Ra- 
 faelle was not Rafaelle, when he began 
 the work at the Vatican. What is worft ■ 
 of all in thefe public inflitutions, is the 
 great majority of bafe, uneducated, indi- 
 gent people, who aVail themfelves of the 
 mechanical culture that academies afford 
 gratis ; fuch ar lifts muft neceffarily de- 
 ftroy and contaminate every thing valu- 
 able, and reduce this liberal art, this filler 
 of poetry and child of philofophy, to a 
 mere trade. The kingdom of France is 
 no longer that theatre for the arts it has 
 been, the wants of the public are fup- 
 plied, their churches are filled, their pa- 
 laces and great houfes are filled, and there 
 remains for kheir artifls but little other 
 profpeds of employment than thofe of ex- 
 portation. The arts in France have had 
 a long and honourable career, and in their 
 turn they have amply repaid the little at- 
 tentions of the king and people, by (Jif- 
 G fufing 
 
( 9 § ) 
 
 fufing over both a fplendor and a glory that 
 will never fade ; I am happy to add, that in 
 the worthy defcendant of Lewis the Great? 
 the French academy ftill finds a tender 
 father and protestor ; the artifts who have 
 fufficient eminence in their profeffion to 
 obtain a feat in that diftinguifhed body, 
 have many of them ample lodgings in the 
 Louvre, and are comfortably and honour- 
 ably fecured againft the accidents of life : 
 here they carry on their work with all 
 the materials of ftudy about them, in the 
 immenfe collection that has been amaffed 
 in the courfe of almoft three hundred 
 years ; and ftill further it appears by the 
 printed catalogue, that their exhibition 
 is for the molt part filled with large pic- 
 tures, painted for the king, not only by 
 thole feveral academicians, but even by 
 fame of the agres or aflbciates. 
 
 Thefe fadts I thought it my duty to 
 ftate plainly and freely, and from the 
 fame fenfe of duty I fhall proceed to ob- 
 ferve, that the foundation of a royal aca- 
 demy. 
 
( 99 ) 
 
 demy, which had been fo long a defide- 
 ratum in England, was happily and pro- 
 videntially referved for our age, when 
 previous enquiry, knowledge, and liberal 
 fentirnent, had fufficiently enabled us to 
 emerge from the barbarifm and fanatical 
 blindnefs of our bigotted anceflors. 
 
 Nothing can be better planned than the 
 regulations and laws, by which our royal 
 academy is governed 3 thefe laws being 
 propofed and framed by the academicians 
 themfelves, without any other interfe- 
 rence, muft be for the intereft of the arts*, 
 but their completion depending upon tho 
 approbation and concurrence of his Ma- 
 jefty, will make it impoffible that they 
 Ihould be other than for the advantage and 
 honour of the nation. 
 
 The money annually raifed by the ex- 
 hibition, which is the fupport of the in« 
 ftitution, is entirely expended in models* 
 fervants, and other neceffaries of the 
 living academy, and that of the antiques^ 
 in bellowing medals, in fending pupils 
 G z abroad*. 
 
( 100 ) 
 
 abroad, in annual charity, and one hum* 
 dred pounds a year is laid by to accumu- 
 late as a fund, the intereft of which may 
 hereafter be appropriated to the ufe of any 
 academician, who from age or infirmity 
 may be in want of it. The only reward 
 (if it may be called fuch) the members 
 of the academy have referved for their 
 attention and pains, is thirty pounds a 
 year each, to their four profefTors of 
 painting, anatomy, architecture, and per- 
 fpeCtive, for fix leCtures by each j half a 
 guinea a night is given to whoever is the 
 vifitor who fuperintends the living aca- 
 demy, the keeper has one hundred pounds 
 a year, the fecretary fixty, the librarian 
 fifty, and the treafurer fixty. J Tis eafy 
 to fhew that a fum, annually raifed by an 
 exhibition of the labours of artifis, might 
 be employed more for their own profit, 
 but furely it could not be laid out more 
 for their honour. 
 
 We have now, in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, a fair opportunity of difcreetly pro- 
 fiting 
 
( *01 ) 
 
 firing by the example of foreign inftitu- 
 tions, avoiding mifchievous exceffes, and 
 making our Royal Academy of that be- 
 nefit and advantage to the public, that 
 was intended by its moil gracious founder* 
 Whenever the academy will take it 
 into their confideration to make fome re- 
 gulations refpedling the number and qua- 
 lifications of the ftudents, they may eafily 
 provide againft any mifchief ; b^t the 
 meetings of this body are ill attended, 
 are indeed deferted by a great many of its 
 moft refpedlable members, it is daily 
 dwindling away, and I much fear that in 
 a little time there will not be a fufficient 
 number left to form a meeting : far be it 
 from me to bring this charge as a matter 
 of any blame to my brethren, no, I am 
 too well convinced of their zeal for the 
 art, and for the reputation of the coun- 
 try ; but their honefl indignation muff 
 have patience, and make fome allowance 
 for a mifguided public. Long deluded 
 as they have been by the gabble of pre- 
 G 3 tended 
 
( 102 ) 
 
 tended Conofcenti, Virtuofi, and dealers 
 in ancient ware, it will require fome time 
 and labour to bring them into a right 
 mode of thinking ; but let us get them 
 right once, and there can be no doubt of 
 their adding in this affair in the arts as 
 they have in every other matter, nobly, 
 and as becomes a great and free nation $ 
 to fay the truth, then, whatever ineffi- 
 cacies are to be found in our inftitution, 
 are fairly chargeable to the negledt, or 
 rather to the inattention of the public,, 
 The king has done much, the artifts have 
 done much, but the public have done no- 
 thing ; his Majefty not only brought the 
 Royal Academy into exigence, but he 
 bellowed upon it the palace of Somerfet 
 Houfe ; like another Cofmo, hemoftgra- 
 cioufly placed himfelf at their head, and 
 generoufly, out of his pocket, made good 
 all the deficiencies of their income, which 
 for fome time was very confiderable | 
 more could not be expedied, or indeed 
 wifhed, when we recoiled! that his Ma- 
 
 i e %’§ 
 
( **3 ) 
 
 jefty's royal attentions are fo vtry widely- 
 extended to the many other wants of his 
 people. On the part of the academicians, 
 the whole income arifing from the exhi- 
 bition of their labours, has been laid out 
 for the advantage of the riling generation ; 
 a ftretch of public fpirit not to be paral- 
 lelled in the Hittory of the Arts ; that 
 they could have done this , for fo many 
 years, is much for their honour; but 
 that they Ihould gc on for ever with the 
 fame noble ardor, cannot, ought not in 
 reafon or juftice, be expe&ed ; the fpirit 
 may be willing, but the flefli is weak, 
 wants increafe as vigour decays ; daily ex- 
 perience fhews the neceffity of being pro- 
 vident, and men mult, fooner or later,, 
 attend to their own interelh What re- 
 mains then but for the public to do feme- 
 thing on their part ; a fmall contribution 
 from them would be of more certain be- 
 nefit on this occafion than a large one ; 
 the trifling fum of fifty pounds annual 
 falary to each academician, of one hun- 
 G 4 dred 
 
( I0 4 ) 
 
 dred to each profeflbr, and one hundred 
 to whoever is prefident for the year ; in 
 fhort, the fmall fum of three thoufand 
 pounds, given annually by parliament* 
 would effeCt the whole, and put this Child 
 of the King and Country, in a condition 
 of fuch permanency, as would enable it 
 to gratify its warmed wifhes in doing ho- 
 nour to both j and when we call to our 
 recollection the wifdom of that auguft 
 affembly, compofed of our king, lords, 
 and highly educated commoners, and that 
 the admirable abilities with which it is 
 irradiated on every fide, give fuch abun- 
 dant evidence of their habitual interccurfe 
 and moft familiar converfe with all thofe 
 arts which polifh and adorn men, there is 
 then every reafon to hope, and to expeCt 
 that the poor petition for the liability of 
 our academy, will find warm and hearty 
 advocates in every part of the houfe. 
 
 The monies raifed by the exhibition 
 might then be ufefully employed in ex- 
 tending our collection of cafts, books, 
 
 and 
 
( io 5 ) 
 
 and other materials of neceffary informa- 
 tion toartifts, which would alfobeagreat 
 gcceflion of entertainment and advantage 
 to the kingdom at large. The Academy 
 at prefent is greatly ftraightened for want 
 of room, even with the few materials it 
 poflelfes, fo much fo that the public muft 
 be deprived of the labour of the two aca- 
 demicians, who are to be refident there in 
 quality of keeper and fecretary, from an 
 unhappy overfight, as no place is left for 
 them t0 carry on their own ftudies and 
 works. The keeper, atleaft, he ought to 
 be conveniently provided, as he has the fu~ 
 perintendance of that very eflential part of 
 the education of the young artifts, which 
 relates to the accurate, attentive, and fci- 
 entitle ftudy of thofe models of perfection, 
 the Grecian Statues ; the impreffion.s 
 which the wifdom or folly ©f his parti- 
 cular obfervations will make on the minds 
 of the (indents, mu ft materially affeCt 
 them for their whole lives after : the 
 keeper then cannot have too much ability^ 
 
 and 
 
( io6 ) 
 
 and the laws of our inftitution very wife-, 
 ly and properly hind us down to fill this 
 place with the belt artift we can obtain. 
 In the inftrument of our inftitution, 
 printed by W. Bunce, printer to the 
 Royal Academy, 1768, our law runs thus. 
 €< There final I be a keeper of the Royal 
 “ Academy ele&ed by ballot, from a- 
 iriongft the academicians ; he ftiall be 
 an able painter of hiftory, fculpturfe, 
 or other artift properly qualified, &c.” 
 *Tis evident, then, that the firft wifh of 
 this law, is for an able painter of hiftory, 
 or a great fculptor, and in cafe of failure, 
 and that neither of thefe can be obtained, 
 the fecond wifh is to fill the place with 
 whatever moft nearly approaches them ; 
 furely then it follows as a thing of courfe, 
 that fuch artift ought necelfarily to be 
 provided with convenient apartpiepts for 
 carrying on tji e btifinefs of his profef- 
 fion. 
 
 Here it may be proper to ftate a fa 
 which is worthy the notice of our Royal 
 
 Founder* 
 
( io 7 ) 
 
 founder an$l Head, and indeed of any 
 one who feels any concern, either for the 
 honour of the academy, or for the edu- 
 cation of our future artifts. The faft 
 is this, the law of the academy, refpedl> 
 Jng the keeper, has been lately altered, 
 without the knowledge or confent of the 
 academicians, and what is (till more re- 
 markable, this alteration appears to have 
 been made juft at the time of our coming 
 into the new building, when another 
 printed copy of the inftrument of our in- 
 ftitution and laws, printed by T. Cad-ell, 
 printer to the Royal Academy, 1781, 
 Was handed round amongft us, and where, 
 without any concurrence, participation, 
 or authority, either from our moft gra- 
 pious Head,, or from ourfelves as a Body, 
 there was obtruded on us the following 
 alteration refpedting the keeper : “ There 
 jfhall be a keeper of the Royal Aca- 
 “ demy eledled by ballot from amongft 
 ** the academicians ; he fhall be an artift 
 ** properly qualified to inftrmft the ftu- 
 
 dents* 
 
( ? 0 $ ) 
 
 ** dents, See” Here we find thofe 
 words of our law omitted, which point 
 out the diferimination of his qualifica- 
 tions, viz. That he fhall be an able 
 ec painter of hiftory, or a fculp-tor.” J Tis 
 very evident that this alteration was thus 
 clandeftinely fmuggled into the law, in 
 order to remedy, or to fpeak more pro- 
 perly, to conceal the great deficience, 
 inconvenience, and inadequate arrange- 
 ment of our new apartments, (for it 
 would be too much to fuppofe it a blow 
 levelled at the profeffors of fuperior art) 
 fo that we muft now order matters ac- 
 cording to our means ; and although the 
 office requires great abilities, yet as the 
 habitation is not calculated for the ex- 
 ercife of fuch abilities, but for the very 
 reverfe, we muft fupprefs the eflential 
 part of our law, and throw away the place 
 as a iinecure upon inadivity, or upon 
 what is much worfe, upon fome trifler, 
 whofe works and himfelf might be thus 
 crammed into a nutffiell, and whofe con- 
 
 traded 
 
( io9 ) 
 
 trailed notions wilLnotwithftanding fettle 
 like a blight on the minds of the ftudents. 
 Thus we fee that from the negledt or in- 
 attention of the nation* our academy has 
 been deferted by fo many of its mo ft re- 
 fpediahle, manly, and independent mem- 
 bers, that thofe who remain may almoft 
 do as they pleafe ; the inftitution is ruin- 
 ing and dwindling into a mere faction of 
 one or two big people* and a few little 
 ones, who, as they are not bound by oath* 
 but by honour, may poffibly pervert every- 
 thing to anfwer the ends of their own 
 plealure, pique, or interefl. Though to 
 remedy thefe evils is not within the 
 power of artifts, yet to the parliament it 
 would be no lefs eafy than it will be ho- 
 nourable ; the reprefentatives of this great 
 nation have nothing further to do, but 
 ftretch forth their parental tendernefs> 
 and give the academy that permanent efla- 
 blifhment that has been ftated above ; this 
 alone would be fufficiently interefting, fo 
 as to produce all the defired union and 
 
 necefiary 
 
( II® ) 
 
 fleceflary £0~Operation, that the nature 
 and ends of fuch an eftablifliment could 
 require. 
 
 But to return to our Want of room in 
 the academy $ there is not even fpace 
 enough to hang up thofe Very excellent 
 drawings from M. Angelo’s laft Judg- 
 ment (by the able and ingenious Mr. 
 Nevay, at Rome), which have been of fo 
 much ufe to the ftudents in the academy; 
 and if any nobleman, or gentleman, wa$ 
 fo public fpirited as to bequeath us any 
 noted picture, by a leader of the good old 
 fchools, where could it be placed, fo as 
 to tempt any other to follow the ex« 
 ample ? 
 
 There feems no apparent neceflrty why 
 his Majefty’s gracious intentions, and the 
 Very end of the institution, Should be thus 
 defeated by fqueezing up the Academy 
 into a fmall compafs, or that three of the 
 profeflbrs, particularly the profeffor of 
 Painting fhould not be furniihed with 
 apartments there for his refidence and bu« 
 
 finefs* 
 
( III ) 
 
 finefs, three rooms, two fmall and one 
 larger of about twenty feet fquare might 
 fufficiently anfwer the purpofe : his lec- 
 tures to the pupils would be more perti- 
 nent and ufeful, and would do the lefs 
 difcredit to the country, the more his ad- 
 vantages of infpeCtion and information 
 were extended by the great mafs of ma- 
 terials that muft necefikrily be brought 
 together under the roof of an Academy. 
 As the very intention of inflituting an 
 Academy can be no other than the bring- 
 ing forward and giving liability, vigour, 
 and perfection to Hiftorical Painting and. 
 Sculpture, to this end it would be highly 
 neceffary (particularly in fuch a country 
 as ours) to contrive a few eafy lituations 
 for artifts of enterprize : this might be 
 eafily and fully effected, by only allowing 
 three rooms each, and of the fame cfinien- 
 lions (as above) to four Hiftorical Painters 
 Academicians, their works would inevita- 
 bly be the better for the materials of ftudy 
 
 around 
 
( 112 } 
 
 around them, which no private artift's 
 collection could fupply. 
 
 All this is yet exceeding practicable, 
 and would be no encreafe of expence 
 worth the mentioning, as the building is 
 ftill carrying on ; the lituation in which 
 it would place -the Academicians would 
 be fufficiently defirable to thofe whofe 
 happinefs confifted in a quiet and conve- 
 nient exercife of their art* all loungers 
 and thofe who might be attracted by the 
 clatter, parade and luxuries of life, would 
 not, could not accept of them. This 
 then is the very identical fituation in 
 which the public would derive the greateft 
 benefit and credit from the labours of the 
 artifts ; they are at the pains of forming, 
 the academicians, being all fworn to vote 
 juftly and confcientioufly (or at leaft ought 
 to be, to prevent partiality and the fhame- 
 ful odious folicitation that is now prac- 
 tifed) and no man being likely to be- 
 come one but the beft grounded and moft 
 formed artift. This inftitution would be 
 
 to 
 
( i*3 ) 
 
 to a man devoted to glory * a fheet an- 
 chor, and fecure moorings againd thofe 
 boiderous tempeds of faftion and intrigue* 
 that will inevitably follow the exertions 
 of the artid, whofe abilities are bed: cal- 
 culated to advance the art and the repu- 
 tation of the country ; every thing would 
 foon wear a very different afpedt, our 
 education in the eighteenth century, and 
 the vigour derived from the freedom and 
 admirable frame of our government, 
 would bring the Grecian fpirit back 
 again into the world * our churches* our 
 public halls and great houfes are for the 
 mod part empty or very incongruoufly 
 fupplied * the Society of Arts might* as 
 I obferved before, hold out their Premi- 
 ums to the mod formed Artids, they 
 might make public donations * &nd other 
 focieties, corporations and refpedtable in- 
 dividuals^ would follow their example* 
 
 H 
 
 Sixth 
 
( n 4 ) 
 
 Sixth PICTURE. 
 
 Elizium , or the State of final Retri- 
 bution. 
 
 A Lthough it is indifputably true, that 
 it exceeds the higheft reach of hu- 
 man comprehenfion, to form an adequate 
 conception of the nature and degree of 
 that beatitude, which hereafter will be the 
 final reward of virtue $ yet it is alfo true 
 that the arts which depend on the imagi- 
 nation, though fhort and imperfect, may 
 neverthelefs be very innocently and very 
 ufefully employed on this fubjedt, from 
 which the fear of erringoughtnottodeter us 
 from the defire being feryiceable. If what 
 fhall be done be fubfervient to the views 
 of piety and virtue ; if no one be milled 
 into vain or vicious ideas, it will be fuf- 
 
 ficient. 
 
ELYSIUM OH THE ST J T35 OF TlR-AH IRE T 
 
JfS 
 
( ) 
 
 ficient, the error will not be regarded, 
 which is only in the fable or vehicle/ and 
 not in the moral. 
 
 As in a work of this kind the want of 
 force and ufeful operation on the fpedta- 
 tor, would be a moft effeotial error, fo I 
 have ftudioufly avoided every tendency 
 towards thofe too refined and over fpiri- 
 tualized notions, which would exclude 
 all organs of fenfation, limbs, features, 
 drefs, and indeed all form whatever 5 the 
 bulk of the world will never trouble them- 
 felves with fuch platonic ufelefs niceties, 
 which to them would probably be at- 
 tended with more mi (chief than benefit * 
 for my own part I have preferred the ex- 
 ample of a Virgil, a Fenelon, and a 
 Milton, and think it not only more pic- 
 turefque, but much better and wifer to 
 lay (if I can) a foundation of fublimity 
 and ufeful moral, upon thofe more po- 
 pular opinions, which have been and 
 ever will be infeparably annexed to the ■ 
 various purfuits of adtive life, 
 
 H 2 
 
 In 
 
( 1x6 ) 
 
 In this concluding picture (which oc- 
 cupies the whole fide of the room, and 
 is of the fame length with that of the 
 Vidors at Olympia, viz* 42 feet each) 
 it was my wifh to bring together in Ely- 
 zium, thofe great and good men of all 
 ages and nations, who were cultivators 
 and benefadors of mankind; it forms a 
 kind of apotfieofis, or more properly a 
 beatification of thofe ufeful qualities 
 which were purfued through the whole 
 work. On one fide this pidure is fepa~ 
 rated from that of the Society,, by palm- 
 trees, a large pedeftal, and a figure of a 
 pelican feeding its young with its own 
 blood, which not unaptly typifies the 
 generous labours of thofe perfonages in 
 the pidure, who had worn themfelves 
 out in the fervice of mankind. On 
 the pedeftal I fhall infcribe a motto, 
 which, with the alteration of a word or 
 two, is taken from the conclufion of the 
 fpeech of Virtue to young Hercules in 
 Zenophon’s Memorabilia. <f They are the 
 
 f&vou- 
 
( 1 *7 ) 
 
 favourites of God, whofe lives have been 
 adively virtuous, cherifhed by their 
 friends, honoured by their country, they 
 remain not buried in oblivion, but a glo- 
 rious reputation makes, them flourifli 
 eternally in the memory of all men. ,, 
 But this I am afraid is too long, and I 
 fhould be thankful to any one who will 
 help me to a better, many others have 
 occurred to me, and have been pointed 
 out by my friends : there is a paflage in 
 Thompfon which comes near what I wifh, 
 viz. if All elfe is periflied, virtue foie 
 furvives, immortal, never failing friend 
 of man.’’ But what I am diffatisfied 
 with is, that this virtue is not fuffici- 
 ently defcribed fo as to diftinguifh it from 
 what is often miftakenly confldered as 
 fuch. Some men can content themfelves 
 with merely rendering inflexible and im- 
 partial juftice to all with whom they have 
 any intercourfe : and others think it fuf- 
 ficient to live innocently, under the cor- 
 red regulations of difcretion and pru- 
 H 3 dence^ 
 
( i i-8 ) 
 
 dence, free from all ftain, offence, and 
 guilt : but thefe and all fuch are without 
 the pale of the true and approved heroic, 
 or chriftian virtue, which lives not for 
 itfelf hut for the good of others. 
 
 Behind thofe palms near the top of the 
 picture, are indiftindtly feen, as immerfl 
 and loft in the blaze of light, cherubims 
 veiled with their wings, in the a (ft of ado- 
 ration, and incenfing fomething not feen, 
 above them and out of the picture, from 
 whence -the light and glory proceeds, and 
 is diitufed over the whole. This method 
 of introducing the awful idea qf Gocl 
 into the picture by his effects, rather than 
 by any attempt to delineate him by a 
 form, appears to me not only more pro- 
 per, but more elevated than reprefenting 
 him by the figure of an old man with a 
 globe in his Hand, as Rafaelle has done 
 in his dispute of the Sacrament, between 
 whom and the faints that furround him, 
 there is very little perceivable difference. 
 
 In 
 
( 1 19 ) 
 
 In the interior and diftant part of the pic- 
 ture are many figures, mod of them females 
 abforbed in glory ; as they are not parti- 
 cularly diftinguiihed, they may ftand for 
 that fpecies of character which forms the 
 bond of fociety, and is the folace of do- 
 meltic life* If one may believe (and why 
 not) that the reward hereafter to be be- 
 llowed upon the good and amiable private 
 man or woman, will be proportionate to 
 the grateful fatisfa&ions that their com- 
 placency, benevolence and affectionate 
 friendfhips afford in this life, it will be 
 very great indeed. Though the unam- 
 bitious and referved nature of this cha- 
 racter, fhuns general remark, yet when 
 men call to their recollection the real, 
 unalloyed comforts, and fatisfaCtions they 
 have derived from their connections in life, 
 no finall part of them will be found ow- 
 ing to their intimacy with this character. 
 It has been, and is my happinefs to know 
 fome of them, who are full of aCtive 
 good, though fo unambitioufiy employed 
 
 H 4 as 
 
( 120 ) 
 
 to make no noife, every man muft find 
 fome, and no one can ever forget or ceafe 
 to love thofe they have known. 
 
 The figure lying down with a pen in 
 one hand, and neareft the eye of the fpec- 
 tator, is Roger Bacon, an Englifh Franci.fr 
 can Monk, with his Opus Majus in the 
 other; near him is Archimedes, Defcar- 
 tes and Thales, who firft taught aftro- 
 nomy to the Greeks, with a celeftial 
 fphere, divided into five zones the con- 
 stellation of the Ur fa Minor, which was 
 the foundation of navigation, and a dia- 
 gram for explaining the dodtrine of eclip- 
 fes, which he firft difcovered ; in the 
 hand of Defcartes is a geometrical work on 
 which they are attentive, where I have 
 introduced that problem of the Cylinder, 
 Sphere, and Cone, as the ultimatum of 
 antient Geometry, which Cicero tells us 
 he had difcovered on the tomb of Archi- 
 mides ; oppofed to this is another pro- 
 blem of Defcartes ; behind him is Sir 
 Francis Bacon, Nicholas Copernicus, 
 
 Gallile© 
 
( 121 ) 
 
 Gillileo, and Sir Ifaac Newton, who^ 
 with two angels, are looking at a folar 
 fyflem, which the inferior angel is un- 
 covering, whilfl: the fuperior, with one 
 finger .over a comet in its aphelion, and 
 the other pointing up, may be fuppofed to 
 explain fome piece of divine wifdom, 
 which her admiring hearers had been be- 
 fore unacquainted with, not only in this 
 group but through the whole pictures 
 t have endeavoured to make the particur 
 Jar happinefs of each clafs and order of 
 men to confift greatly in the puffuit of 
 their favourite ftudies, in which they 
 may now be fuppofed to enjoy a more 
 clear and diftinfl view of that adorable 
 wifdom and infinite oeconomy which, in 
 proportion to the intelligence with which 
 they are obferved, will be every where 
 manifeft through all the works of God. 
 Near the inferior angel is that great and 
 good man Chriftopher Columbus, of 
 Genoa, holding in his band a Chart of 
 that Weftern world he had difcovered y 
 
 the 
 
( 122 ) 
 
 the groupe of fitting figures next to him, 
 is the glorious Sextumvirate of Epami-' 
 nondes, Socrates, Cato, the younger, and 
 the elder Brutus, and Sir Thomas More, 
 which Dr. Swift has fo happily brought 
 together in his account of the Ifland of 
 Glubbdubdribb, and to which he fays 
 all ages of the world have not been able 
 to add a Seventh. But if a molt uniform 
 lincere deteftation of all hypocrify, vio- 
 lence, injuftice, and meannefs of every 
 kind, with a zeal the mo ft honeft, moft 
 ardent, and mo ft manly in the caufe of 
 every virtue, private and public, could 
 authorize me to add a Seventh, Swift 
 himfelf fhould be the man ; who had 
 ever employed the united efforts of elo- 
 quence, wit, panegyric, and fatyr, with 
 more purity, and with a more happy 
 fuccefs than he has done, particularly in 
 his Gulliver. 
 
 If the wife man fent the fluggard to 
 the ant for induftry, where can we find 
 the amiable catalogue of focial virtues 
 
 and 
 
( 123 ) 
 
 and Innocent primeval limplicity better 
 exemplified, than in his fable of the 
 Houghnhnms ; where, in the mod inge- 
 nious and pointed manner, he has exhi- 
 bited, under the fame view, fuch a fin idl- 
 ed, animated, comprehenfive picture of 
 the original depravity, the ufe and abufe 
 of the rational faculties, as will never be 
 outdone. Here we may recognize with 
 pleafure, the amiable features of the in- 
 habitants of Fenelon's Betica, and let 
 me add, of the Quaker fettlers in Penfyl- 
 vania, the un&'ion of whofe virtues is fo 
 ufefully and judicioufly con traded, with 
 the filth and ordure of the other parts of 
 the work, which are unhappily, but too 
 faithfully and judly copied from the 
 nuifances fo glaringly predominant in the 
 world ; let any one who knows London, 
 Paris, See. find fault with the likenefs, 
 if he can. Surely no writer ever exided 
 who has more clearly and more ufefully 
 developed the turpitude of vice, and held 
 pp, as a fpedlacle of difgod and deteda- 
 
 v i 
 
 tiODjg 
 
( 12 + ) 
 
 tlon,_ all the tinfelled depravities, the 
 enormities, and the odious abufes of that 
 reafon and thofe faculties, which have 
 fuperadded to the unavoidable evils of 
 life, fo much of unnecefiary bitternefs, 
 mifery and ruin. Is he, of all men, to 
 be debarred the ufe of irony, and the al- 
 lowed privileges of an apologue, who 
 had never fo far mifufed either, as to 
 miftead the judgment, corrupt the heart, 
 or pollute the imagination of any man, 
 woman, or child, even in the flighted: 
 degree ; no, furely, he is (amongft our 
 writers) an example almoft unique of the 
 contrary 5 the reader, who will give Swift 
 his confidence, fhal! never be deceived, 
 either in what he fhould deleft, or what 
 he fhould emulate. When he raifes dif- 
 guft, is it not at feme fraud, diffimula- 
 tion, fome wafh, paint and varnifh of 
 meannefs and vice j does he, any where, 
 attempt to dilguft, and fet his reader at 
 variance, with fimplicity, innocence, 
 truth or virtue 3 he was no complaifant 
 
 trimmer 
 
( 125 ) 
 
 trimmer a rid h al f - in o r al i it: Socrates would 
 join him in what he has ridiculed, Epic- 
 tetus, Antonnius, and above all the gofpel 
 v/ill be found to condemn and reprobate 
 where Swift has cenfured. Even in pri- 
 vate life, the little peculiarities and occa- 
 fional roughnefs he fometimes adopted* 
 will be found admirably and humanely 
 calculated to convey feme falutary admo- 
 nition, either to his country or his friends* 
 An attempt to torture fuch writings into 
 meanings remote from their obvious na- 
 tural tendency, can do credit to no man. 
 But parties are long lived, triumphant 
 parties will be flattered ; and as the vir- 
 tuous bear a very fmall proportion to the 
 worthlefs, and that his fatire is likely to 
 difiufe itfelf more extenflvely than his 
 panegyric, there is no wonder if the many 
 fhould feel themfelves rather hurt than 
 gratified by a ferutiny fo intrepid and pe- 
 netrating, which greatnefs could not in- 
 timidate, or fubtlety elude. As to what 
 Dr, Johnfon obferves of the foundation 
 
 which 
 
( 1^6 ) 
 
 which Swift had laid for the conftitutional 
 fpirit that has lately exerted itfelf with 
 fuch happy fuccefs in Ireland : this furely 
 will not leflen his value with any man 
 who profefles to regard either truth or 
 juft ice, and who has wifdom and virtue 
 enough to prefer the general good and the 
 ftrength of the whole, to the wretched 
 monopolizing and felfith views of a part 
 only. Although neither my time nor the 
 occaflon allows me to go far into this 
 matter, yet I have it much at heart ; my 
 indignation has been greatly roufed at 
 feme late feurrilities ; and I could not * 
 withold myfelf from flinging out thefe 
 few hints, as a juftifi cation of my inten- 
 tion of adding Dr. Swift as a feventh to 
 this groupe, which I had moft certainly 
 done, if his head had been in my poffef- 
 lion time enough. 
 
 I have put in the lap of M. Brutus 
 (who is leaning on the (boulder of Sir 
 Thomas More) that book it fo well be- 
 came him to write upon the all-fufiiciency 
 
 of 
 
( 1 27 ) 
 
 of Virtue 5 Cicero mentions it, in the 
 fifth book of his Tufculum Deputations, 
 where he is treating the fame fubjedt 
 himfelf, learnedly and eloquently, no 
 doubt; but, notwithftanding, who does 
 not regret the lofs of Brutus’s work, who 
 was more than a mere talker, and whofe 
 whole heart and foul was altogether of a 
 piece with his fubjedt : near M. Brutus 
 
 is William Molyneux, of the kingdom 
 of Ireland, with the cafe of his country 
 in his hand. This book, though written 
 with an aim oft unexampled precifion,, 
 force, and integrity, was in King Wil- 
 liam’s time (to whom it was addreffed) 
 burnt by the hands of the common hang- 
 man, to the great infamy of the faction 
 who then predominated. 
 
 It mu ft, however, be acknowledged, 
 that the Roman Catholics, in Ireland, 
 Bad led the way, in the vindication of 
 thofe rights of their common country, 
 as they had, fome years before, prevailed 
 with king James to give his affent to an 
 
 adt 
 
( 128 ) 
 
 a«S entitled. An AB for declaring that 
 the Parliament of England cannot bind 
 irelandy and agamft Writs of Errors and 
 Repeals out of Ireland into England . But 
 the happy adjuftment of thefe matters was 
 referved for a more liberal, philofophic 
 age, when all occafions of difunion, ftrife, 
 dependance, and defolation fhould be for 
 ever banifhed, together with thofe mif~ 
 chievous horrors of Popery which gave 
 rife to them. The general co-operation 
 of the otherwise jarring interefts of the 
 united Cantons of Switzerland, affords a 
 beautiful fpecimen of thofe numberlefs 
 permanent bleffings that may be derived 
 from a Society founded on modera- 
 tion, confidence, equal law and jufticej 
 where men are not permitted to legalize 
 their fears and fufpicions, whether real 
 or pretended, and where John is no more 
 privileged to bind his neighbour Peter, 
 and to exclude him from any advantages 
 than Peter is to tie up John. We may 
 bow fairly hope that Ireland will, at laft, 
 
 per- 
 
( 129 ) 
 
 permit itfelf to be free ; and that the 
 great majority of the natives of that 
 country (and the majority and the coun- 
 try are fynonomyus terms) will no longer 
 have the bitter mortification of being 
 prefcribed the enjoyments of thofe con- 
 ftitutional rights (derived from the vir- 
 tue of their anceftors, under the Henry's, 
 John's, &c,) which, 'tis to be expeded, 
 will now be generoufly and wifely held 
 out, even to aliens* The bails of our 
 iflands will be firm and wide, not alone 
 in proportion to the encreafe and the 
 number of our people, but to (what is 
 of ft ill more importance) the high, gene- 
 rous, and manly fpirit of thofe people, 
 utterly eftranged from whatever is abjed 
 and fervile* 
 
 Behind Columbus is Lord Shaft ftmry, 
 John Lock, Zeno, Ariftotle, and Plato : 
 in the opening between this group and 
 the next, is Dr, William Harvey, with 
 his work on the Circulation of the Blood $ 
 and fitting below him is the Honourable 
 
 I Robert 
 
( * 3 ° ) 
 
 Robert Boyle, holding a retort : the next 
 group, at which Ariftotle and Lock are 
 looking, and Plato pointing, are legifla- 
 tors, where king Alfred the Great, the 
 deliverer of his country, the founder of 
 its navy, its laws, juries, arts, and let- 
 ters* with his Dom book in one hand, 
 
 * When I read the above paflage to the Earl of 
 Radnor, he very obligingly repeated to me the follow- 
 ing beautiful inscription under a ftatue of Fame, hold- 
 ing a medallion of Alfred, which is at his lordfhip's 
 feat, in Wiltfhire. 
 
 Sifte, quifquis es 
 
 Vel libertatis amans, vel literarum f 
 Et illius viri imaginem 
 Piis fufpice oculis 
 
 Qui patriam peregrinis hoftibus affli&am, 
 
 Domeflica morum feritate, 
 
 Et turpiflima fimul ignorant ia laborantem 
 Armis erexit, legibus mollivit, feientia exornavrf® 
 
 Si fis Britannus 
 Poflis etiam gloriari 
 Militarem Romuli virtutem 
 
 Civilem Numae fapientiam, 
 
 Et philofophicam Antonini gravitatem 
 Unice* in fe comple£li 
 Britannici Alfredi Nomen, 
 
 is 
 
( 1 3 1 ) 
 
 is leaning with the other on the fhoulder 
 of that greateft and beft of lawgivers, Wii- 
 liam Penn, who, in an age of the higheft 
 illiberality and intolerance, did eftablifh a 
 code of laws, and a government in Pen- 
 fylvania, which happily fubfifted until 
 the late troubles, and may be of fervice 
 to future ages, as a mofi perfect model of 
 equal and impartial privilege and juftice, 
 of chriftian meeknefs, forbearance, and 
 brotherly affedtion, and confequently of 
 the moft finiihed, trueft, and moft ufeful 
 national policy, particularly amongft peo- 
 ple who may be unfortunately divided in 
 matters of religion. When the heart is 
 perfedtly in obedience, when it is di- 
 verted of pride, of felfilhnefs, and of 
 malice, the underftanding is in no danger 
 of loiing its way j William Penn is a 
 good inftance of this ; it is alfo very re- 
 markable, and at the fame time very hu- 
 miliating, that neither the great Lock, 
 nor the ftill greater Milton could fo (uf- 
 ciently divert themfelves of party rancour, 
 
 I 2 a£ 
 
( 132 ) 
 
 as to tolerate even upon paper to the fame 
 extent that our amiable legiflator did in 
 the government he actually eftablifhed* 
 Two of thofe laws (viz. all believers in 
 a God tolerated, and all believers in 
 Chriftianity, of whatever denomination, 
 and however they may explain them» 
 felves equally admitted to a participation 
 in the government) I have inferibed in 
 the code he is (hewing to Lycurgus^ 
 Solo, Numa, and Zaleucus* On the 
 other fide of Penn is Minos, Trajan, 
 Antoninus, Peter the Great of Ruflla* 
 Edward the Black Prince, Henry the 
 Fourth of France, and Andrea Doria of 
 Genoa* I have here introduced alfo thofe 
 patrons of men of genius, Lorenzo de 
 Medicis, Louis the XIVth, Alexander 
 the Great, Charles the Ift, Jean Baptift 
 Colbert, Leo the Xth, Francis the Ift, 
 and the illuftrious Lord Arundel. It is 
 admitted that fome of thofe great men 
 may have had exceptionable parts in their 
 characters y but they were great men, and 
 
( *33 ) 
 
 they were intentionally the inftruments 
 of great good to their feveral countries, 
 which they have immortalized by their 
 munificence, and the encouragement they 
 gave to arts and letters, by wifely em* 
 ploying the greateft characters that came 
 within their reach. 
 
 Juft before this group, on the range of 
 rocks which feparate Eiyfium from the 
 infernal regions, I have placed the ange- 
 lic guards. See Milton, Book IV. v. 549, 
 Immediately before this, in the moft ad« 
 vanced part and entrance of the picture, 
 is an arch angel weighing fomething, 
 which is not feen, as the fcales come be- 
 low the frame ; the preponderation of the 
 balance towards Tartarus, may, however, 
 account for the emotion and expreffion of 
 the angels countenance turned towards 
 the fpeCtator, by the upper part of the 
 wings of an angel, and fiend, who ap- 
 pear to furround the fcales below, I hav e 
 endeavoured to imprefs the mind with, 
 &c. Behind this figure, or inftrument 
 I 3 of 
 
( ?34 ) 
 
 of divine juftice (if I may ufe fuch q 
 term) there is another angel, of a diffc- 
 tent clafs and character, who is explain- 
 ing fomething to my two favpurite wri- 
 ters upon the analogy, between religion 
 and nature, Pafcal and bifjiop Butler* 
 Behind Francis L and Lord Arundel, are 
 thofe children of peace and moderation, 
 Hugo Grotius, Father Paul, Pope Adri- 
 an, &c. enjoying that unanimity which 
 the felfiflinefs and party-ftrife of others 
 would not permit them fo enjoy here 
 below. In the top of the pi&ure, and 
 near the centre, fits Homer, who, with 
 his head raifed, and turned towards that 
 part from whence the glory proceeds, is 
 now finging to his lyre, fomewhat which 
 Plato would not have condemned, in 
 which he is accompanied by a choir of 
 angels behind him. On his right hand, 
 fits Milton, with a more modern inftru- 
 ment in his lap. Shakefpear fits next to 
 Milton, in a carelefs eafy a&ion, with 
 loofe papers flung negligently about him. 
 
 Spencer 
 
( >35 ) 
 
 Spencer and Chaucer are next. Behind 
 Sappho, who is near Chaucer, witji a 
 pen in her hand, &c. fits the poet Ul- 
 ceus, who was fo much admired by the 
 ancients, though his writings are loft, 
 yet fortunately there is a head of him re- 
 maining, and from the noble and fpirited 
 account Horace gives of his abilities, I 
 have found a companion for him, very 
 much of his own caft in our ancient 
 bard Ofilan, with whom he is talking $ 
 as to the merit of Offian’s poetry, whe- 
 ther it was better or worfe, or of the 
 fame lofty, impetuous, fierce charadter, 
 with that of the Runic and Iflandic bards, 
 is now difficult to determine ; but if we 
 may be allowed to eftimate him by the 
 Fingal, Temora, &c. which the ingeni- 
 ous Mr, Mackpherfon has publifhed in 
 his name, it is certain he would do ho^ 
 nour to any company to which he might 
 introduce him, I agree, however, with 
 the learned and very ingenuous Mr. Shaw, 
 that Oflian, whatever his abilities may 
 J 4 
 
( ^6 ) 
 
 have been as a bard* was an Xrifli bard p 
 what he has fo clearly and fo forcibly 
 urged,, from his own knowledge* added 
 to the united teftimony of all the ancient 
 writers of our iflands, from Beda down 
 to Cambden, puts this matter beyond all 
 difpute. I have accordingly given Oflian 
 the Xrifli harp, and the lank black hair, 
 and open unreferved countenance, pecu- 
 liar to his country 3 near him is another 
 group, confifting of Menander, Moliere, 
 Congreve. —Bruma, Confucius, Mango, 
 Capac, &c. 
 
 Next to Homer, on the other fide, fits 
 the great arch bifhop of Cambray, with 
 that firft of all human productions, his 
 ineftimable poem of Telemachus 3 Virgil 
 is Handing between, and leaning on the 
 arehbiftiop’s ftioulder. The next figures 
 are Taflb, Ariofto, and Dante, the laft 
 of whom, with his hands on the fhoul- 
 ders of his two dependents, is leaning 
 forward, attending to Homer. 
 
 As to Ariofto, X am happy to fay, that 
 
 he 
 
C *37 ) 
 
 he is now our own, fince, from the fpi- 
 sited and mafterly tranflation of him, by 
 the ingenious Mr. Hoole, we alfo are 
 now enabled to enjoy that copious, un- 
 bounded fancy, that eloquent fenfibility, 
 and felicity of expreffion, which have 
 long been an inexhauftible fund of delight 
 to the people of Italy. Behind Dante, 
 fits Petrarch, with his hand locked in 
 
 that of Laura $ and between them, and 
 
 i 
 
 further in the picture, is Giovanni, Boc- 
 caccio, &c. 
 
 In the fecond range of figures, juft 
 over Edward the Black Prince, and Peter 
 the Great, of Ruffia, I have brought to- 
 gether Dodtor Swift, Erafmus, and Cer- 
 vantes ; near them is Pope, Dryden, Ad- 
 difon, and Richardfon, the author of 
 Clarifiai behind Dryden and Pope, is 
 Stern, Gray, Mafon, Goldfmith, Thomp- 
 fon, and Henry Fielding j near Richard- 
 fon, is Hogarth, Inigo Jones, Wren, 
 and Vandyk : every body knows that this 
 iaft mentioned great artift, had it much 
 
C *38 ) 
 
 at heart to execqte fome great hiftori- 
 cal work, which (liquid remain as a mo- 
 nument of his abilities ; with this view 
 he went to France, where he found N. 
 Pouffin employed at the Louvre ; he then 
 returned to England, and propofed to his 
 rcyal patron, to paint the proceflion of 
 the knights of the garter, for the fum of 
 $o,oo0l. and though it has been often 
 regretted, that this work was never car- 
 ried into execution, yet the lovers of art 
 will have fome confolation, to find that it 
 is nqt totally loft, as Vandyk’s original 
 defign, which was painted in Chiaro 
 Ofcuro, and is in the poflefiion of the earl 
 of Northington, is now engraving by my 
 yery ingenious and long e (teemed friend, 
 Mr. Cooper, whofe great profeflional ta- 
 lents it fincerely rejoices me to fee thus 
 happily exerted. In this part of the pic- 
 ture, where I have introduced many artifts 
 of my own profeffion, it was my wifh to 
 glance at the difpute between the ancient 
 Creeks and old Italian painters for pre- 
 eminence. 
 
( *39 ) 
 
 eminence, a queftion that has been mi|cl| 
 controverted ; the learned, for the moft 
 part, have inclined to the ancients* 
 whilft the contrary opinion is adopted by 
 tlie greateft number of thofe, who were 
 moft conversant yvilh modern art* 
 
 Much had been written by the painters 
 of Greece, and by fome of the moft ex- 
 cellent of them upon the art ; many of 
 their philofophers and other great and 
 knowing men, had alfo exprefsly written 
 on the fame fubjedt $ and from the num- 
 ber as well as the importance of thefe 
 writers, it does indeed appear that a very 
 extraordinary attention was paid to this 
 fubjedt ; but not one out of fo many 
 writers has come down to us, not even a 
 fragment | fo that we have no other in- 
 formation relative to the ftate of painting 
 |n Greece, but what we can colled! from 
 the mere accidental obfervations of an- 
 cient writers on other fubjedts* If we 
 jfhould for a moment fuppofe that modern 
 |>idtures were all deftroyed, and that all 
 
 the 
 
( J 4 Q ) 
 
 the books exprefsly written upon pictures 
 and painters had lhared the fame fate, 
 what kind of information could be ga- 
 thered a thou fand years hence, even from 
 all our other writers, refpeding the ca- 
 pacity of Rafaelle, Titian, &c 0 Such 
 exadly is the cafe of the ancients with 
 refped to us, and yet fo much is to be 
 collected even in this miferable way, that 
 for my own part, I have not the leaft 
 doubt but that the whole of the art of 
 painting was underilood and pradifed by 
 the Greeks ; there is not one mechanical 
 excellence, that is not either diredly 
 pointed out or palpably alluded to in the 
 accidental mention of fome ancient writer, 
 not merely as exifting, but as exifting in the 
 various degrees of comparative excellence. 
 As totheirignoranceof perfpedive, fooften 
 infilled on, it has not been proved, and 
 there is much prefumptive and fome di- 
 red; evidence may be produced to prove 
 the contrary. Be it admitted then, that 
 
 the ancient painters were excellent in the 
 
 inven- 
 
I 141 ) 
 
 invention* drawings colouring, and com- 
 pofition of a pidure,, The queftion does 
 yet remain, were they more excellent 
 than the moil excellent of the moderns j 
 in my own opinion this matter will not 
 on the whole, and in all the component 
 parts of a picture, fairly admit of a decifion, 
 fince there remains no pidures of the 
 Greeks to compare with thofe of the mo- 
 derns, and this only could fatisfy ; for 
 experience every day convinces us, how 
 little we can rely upon the accounts, de- 
 fcriptions, and panegyrics of pidures and 
 painters, which are tranfmitted to us 
 through the vague exaggerated mediums 
 of poetry and rhetoric, where particulars 
 are but feldom fpecified, and even when 
 they are, little elfe is difcoverable than 
 the effort of the writer to colled the 
 whole powers of his own art, and to ex- 
 prefs himfelf with the greateft poffible 
 force or elegance upon the fubjed he 
 has in hand, and frequently with but lit- 
 tle reference to that which appears to have 
 
 Intro- 
 
( *42 ) 
 
 introduced it. Of this no one can doubt 
 who has read Pope’s Epiftle to Jervoile, 
 and the very fpirited and elegant Poem 
 lately publifhed by Mr. Hayley. 
 
 I know very well that Lucian and Paufa- 
 nias do fometimes afford us the fatisfadtion 
 of enabling us to judge of the ground of 
 their admiration and praife : they now 
 and then lay before us the ideas that oc- 
 curred to the painter in the treating of 
 his fubjedt, and in general thefe are na- 
 tural and fometimes very ingenious ; but 
 there is nothing fo fuperlatively aftonifh- 
 ang as to warrant our preferring them to 
 many inventions of Rafaelle, Pouffin, &c. 
 Perhaps no pofitive proof can now be 
 given, that the calumny of Apelles was 
 fuperior to that of Rafaelle ; if it be faid 
 that Rafaelle borrowed the ideas from the 
 account that Lucian gives of this pidture 
 of Apelles, and has added nothing to it 
 from himfelf, this is true, but does not 
 fupport the affertion one iota, for fhere 
 are many fubjedts of Rafaelle’s own in- 
 vention,- 
 
( *43 ) 
 
 vention far from being inferior to this of 
 the calumny * but in general the ancient 
 writers communicate very little informa- 
 tion when they mention pi&ures* What 
 Ovid elegantly fays, * that Venus would 
 have remained buried under the fea, if 
 Apelles had not drawn her out by his 
 pidture/ fpecifies nothing particular $ 
 Petrarch might have faid this of Giotto, 
 or of any other painter, who, though 
 comparatively bad with refpedt to our 
 times, might have been the moft ex- 
 cellent in his own. The Ample idea of 
 Venus coming out of the fea, and wring- 
 ing her hair, is all that remains of this pic- 
 ture of Apelles . Rafaelle has made a Venus 
 alfo, of which there is a print by Marc An- 
 tonio i but he has added nothing of him- 
 felf to the folitary original idea, except 
 certain particulars, which his defign had 
 been better without, a town and a fhip 
 in the diftance, and in the air Jupiter 
 cutting off the genitals of Saturn j fadls 
 that in all reafonable probability muft 
 
 have 
 
( *44 ) 
 
 have been the one prior, and the other 
 confiderably pofterior to that on which 
 he builds his main fubjedt. As to Titian’s 
 Venus, in the Tribuna at Florence, the 
 bed, the lap-dog, the woman taking 
 dirty linen out of a box, and her own 
 meretricious adtion, has induced me to 
 think he never intended it for a Venus, 
 more efpecially as there is of him in the 
 Pallais Royal, a half figure of Venus 
 wringing her hair, according to the idea 
 of Apelles, with the fea in the back 
 ground, and without any addition of his 
 own, either good or bad* So far there 
 appears no good and fufficient reafon for 
 our giving any great preference tothe an- 
 cients | but if we fhould indulgently fup- 
 pofe, that this pidture of Apelles was not 
 confined to the fimple idea that has come 
 down to us, but that befides difintangling 
 herfelf from her hair, her appearance, as 
 Lucretius finely exprefles it, brought 
 fplendour and delight into a gloomy 
 world, and diffufed through the inhabi- 
 tants 
 
( H5 ) 
 
 tants of air, of the earth, and the *fea, 
 that principle of love and affociation 
 from whence every thing that lives de- 
 rives joy and continuance. But how can 
 we fuppofe this without arraigning all the 
 ancient critics who could have overlooked 
 it, and who from the fenfibility and dif- 
 cernment many of them have fhewn, 
 cannot reafonably be fufpedted of any 
 fuch inattention. All that has been taken 
 notice of by the ancient writers in the ce- 
 lebrated picture of Timomachus amounts 
 only to the divided will of Medea, be- 
 tween her affection for her children, and 
 her jealoufy on her hufband’s marriage 
 with Creufa. So far this is well and in- 
 genious ; but the fubjedt is capable of 
 more ; fomething might be made of the 
 children worth taking notice of : whilfi 
 the mother is in all this agitation, with 
 the preparations for a facrifice around her, 
 the younged and mod loved child may 
 be playing at her feet ; and with an infan- 
 tine innocence and joy calling for the at- 
 K tention 
 
( ) 
 
 tention of his mother to a butterfly (or 
 pfyche) he is laughingly holding up to 
 her, whilft the elder, terrified at the agi- 
 tation of his mother, and ignorant of the 
 caufe of it, is feeking (belter under her 
 chlamys or mantle. — Indications of the 
 marriage in the diftance, &c. 
 
 Whether thefe additions would deferve 
 praife is not for me to fay, as it is a de- 
 fcription of an unfinifhed (ketch of this 
 fubjed which I made about five years 
 fince. Upon the whole, it dees appear 
 that the Venus of Apelles, the Hellen of 
 Zeuxis, the Philodetes of Parrhafius, the 
 Medea of Timomachus, &c. exift in the 
 minds of many people, like Cicero’s per- 
 fed Orator, or the Stoicks perfed Man, as 
 fo many abftrad ideas of the mod perfed 
 conceivable grace, or beauty, or expref- 
 fion ^ it is therefore no wonder if Rafaelle, 
 Titian, Corregio, and other modern he- 
 roes, whofe errors, imperfedions, and 
 deficiencies, we have N an opportunity of 
 infpeding, (hall be found much wanting 
 
 when * 
 
( *47 ) 
 
 when compared with fuch a hyperbolical 
 and vifionary ftandard : it mud be can- 
 didly admitted that there is nothing can 
 authorife our believing that Titian was 
 ever excelled in colouring, or the Fle- 
 mings and Dutch in low life, flnce the 
 art is not capable of more, or that the 
 ancients were more excellent than the 
 moderns in landfcape, or even in many of 
 the Idler departments of the fuperior art of 
 hiftorical painting ; thefe incontrovertable 
 fads mud be acknowledged ; and yet 
 when I refled that painting and fculpture 
 are to a certain length the fame art, pro- 
 poling the fame defiderata, that the paint- 
 ers knowledge does include the whole of 
 the fculptors, and a great deal more; that 
 they were cotemporaries and under the 
 influence of the fame education. I can- 
 not for a moment helitate at giving the 
 preference to the painters of antiquity; 
 for when we allow them to have been 
 Ikilled in the fublime and elegant pradice 
 of perfonifying the abdrad perfedions of 
 K. 2 human 
 
( 148 ) 
 
 human nature, in all the different fpecres 
 of characters of which the Grecian my- 
 thology corn! (led, embodying and adapt- 
 ing, a form and a fyflem of adequate pro- 
 portions to the abftraCt idea of wifdom, 
 in the character of a Minerva, to majefty 
 in that of a Juno, to beauty in Venus, 
 in Jove, in Mars, and in Hercules, ad- 
 mirably diftinguifhing through the whole 
 fuite of their male and female divinities, 
 that peculiar formation, and that fyfteim 
 of proportions, that naturally coincided 
 with the idea of. each character, which 
 altogether comprehended the whole exte- 
 rior of male and female perfection ; of 
 this no one can entertain a doubt, as the 
 Grecian ftatues yet remaining are evidence 
 the moft conclufive and fatisfaCtory. But 
 how much is our admiration of Grecian 
 art encreafed, when we call the hiflory of 
 thefe veftiges to our recollection ? 
 
 Every body knows, that of all thofe 
 works of the Greeks which adorned 
 Rome, after the plundering and deftruc- 
 
 tion 
 
( M9 ) 
 
 tlon of the Grecian polities, whatever was 
 moft in efteern was carried away by Con- 
 ftantine and his followers, to ornament 
 their new feat of empire y thefe were af- 
 terwards deftroyed by the blind perverfe 
 bigotry and rage of thofe wretched mif- 
 creants, the Iconoclaftes, and as if no 
 monument of intellectual ability was 
 doomed to efcape, the fucceffive devalua- 
 tions of the Goths, Huns, and other 
 northern barbarians in the weft, gave the 
 finilhing blow to whatever was yet re- 
 maining of arts at Rome. For the fame 
 reafon that thefe works of art were taken 
 away, we mu ft fuppofe the beft and moil 
 celebrated to have been taken ; and for 
 the fame reafon that they were deftroyed, 
 we ought to fuppofe, that what was 
 deemed the beft was leaft likely to efcape. 
 If then what remained was confidered as 
 of no note, the work of obfcure artifts, 
 neither worth the removing nor the de- 
 ftroying, and that even the veftiges which 
 happen to be preferved of this flighted re- 
 K 3 fufe 
 
(iSo ) 
 
 fufe, is notwifhftanding at this day the 
 admiration of all enlightened people, and 
 that fomfc of them (land as yet unrivalled 
 by any modern productions ; what then 
 muft be our aftoni (lament, when we turn 
 our thoughts to thofe works of a Phidias., 
 a Praxiteles, a Lyfippus, an Euphranor, 
 an Apelles, Parhafius, &c. thus mifera- 
 bly deftroyed in confequence of their fu- 
 perior excellence. 
 
 I would recommend the confideration 
 of this to thofe Shallow dogmatical fulky 
 philofophers and critics, who are for 
 meafuring the human faculties, by the 
 fhort ftandard of what this or that artifb 
 has done ; if any thing could teach them 
 a ufeful lefifon, furcly this would, God 
 Almighty has, no doubt, fixed the boun- 
 daries of human ability, but which of 
 you, ye critics, will attempt to point 
 out where they lie. 
 
 At the refurredion of the arts in Italy, 
 they appear for the moft part to have been 
 confined to the pradice of mechanical un- 
 educated 
 
( W ) 
 
 educated people • and to have been a! mod; 
 wholly employed on fubjeCts generally 
 believed to be within thecompafs of or- 
 dinary and even vulgar education. There 
 are indeed a few illuftrious exceptions, 
 but in Greece this matter was quite dif- 
 ferent, their artifts were phiiofophers the 
 moft fubtle and metaphyfical, and appear 
 to have confidered the whole of created 
 nature with all its fcattered perfections, 
 but as a mere chaos, and rude mafs of in- 
 coherent materials, thrown together by 
 the great Creator, for the exercife of thofe 
 intellectual faculties, he had beftowed 
 upon man, and which he had moft wifely 
 pnd beneficently imp relied with ideas of 
 perfection, and a capacity of conception 
 to which individual nature might make 
 fome diftant approaches, but at which it 
 would never arrive. Here then is the 
 ftore-houfe from whence we have derived 
 all thofe works that have filled the mind 
 with aftonifhment, initruCtion, and plea- 
 sure ; hence came the heroes and demi- 
 K 4 gods 
 
( ) 
 
 gods of the Grecian artifts, whether po-^ 
 ets, painters, or fculptors ^ hence the man 
 of the Stoicks, the orator of Cicero, thd 
 Lovelace and Grandifon of Richardfon, 
 and it muff be acknowledged that all the 
 materials of the invaluable conflellation 
 of characters in the fo much admired Ci- 
 cilia, which has recently added fuch a 
 luftre to our literary hemifphere, has 
 been happily feledted from the fame re- 
 pertory. 
 
 It is then evident and incontroverti- 
 ble, that the Grecian artifts poffefted the 
 very efience, fpirit, and animating foul 
 of the art ; and, as Longinus has faid of 
 Demofthenes, compared with Hyperides, 
 th is one excellence outweighs the whole 
 of what the Italians could oppofe to it $ 
 and in this refpedt Pouffin has not too 
 ftrongly expreffed himfelf when he affirms 
 that Rafaelle, though an angel to the mo- 
 derns, was an afs when put into compe- 
 tion with the antients : if we were to 
 compare any female figure in the cartoons 
 
 of 
 
( 1 53 ) 
 
 of Jlafaelle,. . with that beautiful Greek 
 mufe in Mr. Tpwnly ■-$ dining /parlour, 
 how inferior, how inaccurate, how grofs 
 and vulgar does Rafaelie appear ! 
 
 The ingenious Mr. Webb has very 
 juftly obferved that Rafaelie has fucceeded 
 belt in the middle walk of characters in 
 apoftles, philosophers, &c. his judgment, 
 which was excellent, had not fufficient 
 materials to work with in the higher 
 fphere $ fame of the fined; antique ftatues 
 were not yet difcovered in his time, and 
 even of fuch as were, men had not fully 
 digefted their opinions about them ; as 
 the treafures of Greek learning, which 
 only could have afforded light into thefe 
 matters, were as yet aimed: unopened, at 
 -ieaft not fufficiently in general circulation 
 to fall in the way of artifts, fa that 
 however perfect painting may have then 
 been as an art, it was certainly very de- 
 , fe&ive as a fcience • it is therefore no great 
 matter of wonder, that through the 
 whole range of deities in the hiftory of 
 
( *54 ) 
 
 Cupid Pfyche, which Rafaelle painted at 
 the Ghigi palace, that he has miftaken, 
 and improperly treated almoft every one 
 of them* ** We have copies of two of 
 
 thofe 
 
 * For Tome little time pad this work of mine, 
 having been pretty much feen, it has given occa- 
 fion to a confiderable extenfion of pay acquaint* 
 ance, and I hope of my friends ; amongd others to 
 whom l read this little account, were Mr. Townley, 
 and Mr. Dankerville, the latter of whom obferved to 
 me that he was entirely of my mind, as to this ab- 
 flradl character of the Grecian works, and the utter 
 inferiority of what the Italians had been in qued of, 
 that he had been for fome time employed upon a hif- 
 tory of the art, where he had occafion to invedigate 
 this matter very minutely ; and that he would read to 
 me that evening a part of his work which was a com- 
 ment upon Paufanias’s account of the feries of pic- 
 tures by Polygnotus, which he was pleafed tq tell me 
 had no frnali affinity with my pictures ; from what he 
 read to me, and from what he communicated in con- 
 verfation, I have an inexpreffible pleafure in finding that 
 this dory and criticifm of art (after the fumbling and 
 groping of antiquaries and pedants for two centuries 
 pad) has at lad got into the right hands ; fuch a con- 
 junction affords a pleafing profpedl, where the man 
 appears alone made for the fubjeft, and the fubjedf for 
 
 thg 
 
( I 55 ) 
 
 thofe pictures at Northumberland houfe ? 
 and we may compare the feveral figures 
 with the paflages in the ancient poets ? 
 
 and 
 
 the man : I hope it will be out Toon, that I may be a 
 fharer in the utility and pleafure that mull be derived 
 from it ; but if fuch a work fhould be retarded or ob- 
 firu&ed from any want of attention and encourage- 
 ment on the part of the public, it is much to be re- 
 gretted. 
 
 I mull alfo be allowed to take notice that in the twp 
 years that I have had the happinefs of knowing Mr. 
 Locke, it has often occurred to me how great a lofs 
 the public is like to fuilain from his ill health and af- 
 fluent fortune ; for notwitbllanding that I believe few 
 fortunes have been ever employed more to the honour 
 pf the pofleffor, or to the advantage of fociety, 
 yet the labour of fuch a chara£ter is much wanting, 
 particularly in this country and age ; his very difiin- 
 guifhing fagacity, his familiar and accurate knowledge 
 of all the arts, and all the parts of thofe arts, as well 
 where they are flaminal, conftituent, and peculiar, 
 as where they are communicable and univerfal ; his 
 uncommon candour, fteady adherence, and ardent 
 zeal for truth, and his little relifh for any favourite 
 fyftem, would make a well digefled work on the arts, 
 by Mr. Locke, one of the moft defnable as well as 
 ufeful gratifications that could be well imagined. I 
 
 very 
 
,( J 5 6 ) 
 
 and with the Greek ftatues, we fliali then 
 find that Jupiter, with his hair like white 
 wool, is not Homer's Jupiter, but is in 
 the common place idea of God, the father, 
 and originating in that pafiage of the pro- 
 phet Daniel of the ancient of days. 
 
 The Mercury likewife is fo far from 
 being that delicate beautiful youth de- 
 fcribed in the Odyffey, that he is muf- 
 cuiar enough to fuppiy, upon oecafion, 
 the place of his grandfather Atlas, The 
 fame fault is obfervable in the female 
 figures ; they all of them feem to be caft 
 In the fame gigantefque mold, by which 
 means the Minerva, Juno, &c. are not 
 of larger proportions than his Venus and 
 the Graces : nothing is more common 
 than this error. Many of our modern 
 painters and fculptors appear to fee nothing 
 
 further 
 
 very much beg his pardon for this perhaps too free 
 ufe of his name 3 and wifh to give him the trouble of 
 writing $ but in the handling of my fubjecf, and con- 
 lideringthe wants of the public, it Hid from me slmofi 
 without knowing it. 
 
( i57 ) 
 
 farther in thofe deities, than certain attri- 
 butes and infignia, by putting on a hel- 
 met and gorgoo^ any girlifh proportion is 
 made to fignify a Minerva y the Petafus 
 and Caduceus make a Mercury, and the 
 Eagle Jupiter. Though this work of Ra~ 
 faelle’s is defective in thefe and other par- 
 ticulars, yet it abounds with that divine 
 fire and enthufiafm, which will ever 
 make it regarded as one of the nobleft 
 productions of modern art. Since, to make 
 ufe of an antiquated phrafe, a man may 
 as well be hanged for ftealing a fheep as a 
 lamb y” and that I have already ftrayed 
 pretty far from my fubjedt, it may not be 
 amifs to indulge myfelf a little farther, 
 and fqueeze into this place a concern of 
 my own, which is, in forne meafure* 
 connedted with this great work of Ra» 
 faelle’s. 
 
 When I was ftudying the Greek fta- 
 tues at Rome, and comparing them with 
 the gods and goddeffes of Rafaelle, at 
 the Ghigi, I felt myfelf irrefiftihly im- 
 pelled 
 
( *58 ) 
 
 pelled to try how far my own /kill and 
 ilrength would carry me in a parallel fub- 
 jed with this of Rafaelle ; the advantages 
 of living in the eighteenth century, after 
 fo much intervening, and very eflential 
 criticifm and Greek illumination, in the 
 articles of beauty, character, fublimity, 
 &c. thefe eflential advantages appearing 
 to me, if not a fufficient counterpoize, 
 yet at leafl: a confiderable acceffion of 
 weight, in the light fcale of a Tramon- 
 tane and a modern ; emboldened by this, 
 I fat down, with great avidity, to a fubjed 
 from Heilod, which is more interefting, 
 and full of addon, than that of Rafaelle’s 
 from Apuleius. It is Pandora, or the 
 Heathen Eve, brought into the affembly 
 of the gods, attired by Venus and the 
 Graces, and inftruded in the domeftic 
 duties of a wife, by Minerva. Apollo 
 is finging the Hymeneal, and Mercury 
 putting on his Talaria, to carry her down 
 to Epimetheus her faufband. 
 
 The Hors are brewing flowers, and 
 
 Hebe 
 
 v ' 
 
( *59 ) 
 
 Hebe carrying round Nedtar on the occa- 
 fion ; two of the Parcs fitting in a cave 
 of clouds behind Jupiter, are employed 
 upon her deftiny, whilfl: the other is 
 coming forth with the well-known cafket, 
 which contains her portion, &c. except 
 the mere mention which Paufanias makes 
 of a baffo relievo, carved by Phidias, 
 upon the pedeftal of the flatue of Mi- 
 nerva, at Athens; this is altogether a 
 virgin fubjeft, and, perhaps, one of the 
 fined remaining of the ancients. As I 
 had this work fo much at heart, and that 
 the whole of my /Indies, whilft I was 
 abroad, were but one continued prepara- 
 tive to the painting of it, (which might 
 indeed well fatisfy me, as it included the 
 whole of the art,) it was, with great 
 mortification, I found myfelf neceffitated 
 to decline two very flattering offers, which 
 were made me for the painting of it, one 
 by his Grace the Duke of Richmond, 
 the other by Mr. Lock ; but it was im- 
 poffible for me to comply, as I was tho- 
 roughly 
 
( i6q } 
 
 roughly perfuaded, that this fubjedl: 
 would , from the very nature of it, lofe 
 much of the grandeur of it’s effect, by 
 being reduced to too narrow limits. On 
 meafuring my drawing of it, fince Mr e 
 Locke fpoke to me, I find that, according 
 to the full extent of my own wifiies, this 
 picture would not exceed 8 feet io inches 
 high, and 17 feet 8 inches long, fo that 
 it would be only 12 inches higher than a 
 common whole length portrait. As the 
 doing of this work (particularly for fome 
 place in town, where it might be near the 
 Dukeof Northumberland’s) would, in fome 
 meafure, complete the little fcheme of art 
 I had laid down for myfelf, I have em- 
 braced this occafion of mentioning it to 
 the public, or even to ftrangers, if this 
 paper Ihould reach them ; the recollection 
 of it naturally occurred on mentioning 
 Rafaelle’s work at the Ghigi Palace, and 
 the preference that was due to the Greeks : 
 and now, with the indulgent Reader’s good 
 favour and pardon for this tranfgrefiion* 
 
 we 
 
( i6i ) 
 
 we fhall here refume our fu.bje£t, and take 
 up that part of Elyzium, where I have 
 introduced the profelTors of my own art. 
 
 Next to Vandyk is Rubens, who with 
 his hand on the fhoulder of the modeft 
 and ingenious Le Sueur, is pufhing him 
 forward among ft the ar tifts of greater 
 confequence $ Le Brun is behind him. 
 The next figures are Julio Romano* 
 Dominichino, and Annibal Carrache, who 
 are talking with Phidias, the Greek fculp- 
 tor and architect, with the bald head, and 
 with a ground plan of the Temple of 
 Minerva at Athens under his arm 5 near 
 him are two Greek painters, Nicholas 
 Pouflin and the Scycionian Maid, with 
 the {hade of her Lover, which gave a 
 beginning to the art ; near her is Calli- 
 machus the Greek fculptor, with his 
 invention of the Corinthian capital, and 
 behind him fits Pamphilus, who is known 
 by fome treatifes he had written, and who 
 is exultingly calling upon the moderns to 
 produce any man equal to his difciple 
 L Apelles* 
 
( i6z ) 
 
 Apelles, who is painting; on the off- fide 
 of Apelles., Is Corregio, in whofe aftion 
 I wifhed to exprefs a kind of negative 
 upon the offer which Titian is making 
 toRafaelle, or Parmeggiano of his Pallet* 
 or colouring, to be added to the feveral 
 particulars in which they excelled ; for 
 it is certain, that as no painter of Italy 
 has pofTeffed the beauty, fublimity, and 
 knowledge difcoverable in the antique,, 
 the union of all their good qualities would 
 Hill be efientially defective, and not a= 
 mount to the idea of perfect painting. 
 Behind Rafaelle Hand M. Angelo, and 
 Leonardo da Vinci, thofe two great and 
 venerable trunks, from whence all the 
 branches of modern art have derived 
 much of fap and nutriment ; behind 
 them are Ghiberti, Donatello, Maf- 
 facchio, Brunelefchi, Albert Durer, 
 Giotto, and Cimabue. 
 
 Notwithftanding Hogarth’s merit does 
 undoubtedly entitle him to an honourable 
 place amongft the artifts, and that his 
 
 little 
 
( * 6 3 ) 
 
 little compofitions confidered as fo many 
 dramatic reprefentations, abounding with 
 humour, charader, and extenfive obser- 
 vations on the various incidents of low, 
 faulty and vicious life, are very ingeni- 
 oufly brought together, and frequently 
 tell their own ftory with more facility 
 than is often found in many of the ele- 
 vated and more noble inventions of 
 Rafaelle, and other great men ; yet it 
 muft be honeftly confefled, that in what 
 is called knowledge of the figure, fo- 
 reigners have juftly obferved, that Ho- 
 garth is often fo raw*, and unformed, as 
 hardly to deferve the name of an artift. 
 But this capital defied is not often per- 
 ceivable, as examples of the naked and 
 of elevated nature but rarely occur in 
 his fubjeds, which are for the mo ft part 
 filled with charaders, that in their nature 
 tend to deformity $ befides, his figures 
 are fmall, and the jondures, and other 
 difficulties of drawing that might occur 
 in their limbs* are artfully concealed 
 L a with 
 
( 1 6 4 ) 
 
 with their cloaths, rags, &c. But what 
 would alone for all his defedls, even if 
 they were twice told, is his admirable 
 fund of invention, ever inexhauftible in 
 its refources ; and his fatyr, which is 
 always fharp and pertinent, and often 
 highly moral, was (except in a few in- 
 fiances, where he weakly and meanly 
 fuffered his integrity to give way to his 
 envy) feldom or never employed in a dif- 
 honeft or unmanly way. 
 
 Hogarth has been often imitated in 
 his fatyrical vein, fometimes in his hu- 
 morous ; but very few have attempted to 
 rival him in his moral walk. The line 
 of art purfued by my very ingenious pre- 
 deceffbr and brother academician, Mr. 
 Penny, is quite diftindt from that of 
 Hogarth, and is of a much more deli- 
 cate and fuperior relifti ; he attempts the 
 heart, and reaches it whilft Hogarth’s 
 general aim is only to fhake the fides : 
 in other refpedts no comparifon can be 
 thought of, as Mr. Penny has all that 
 
 know™ 
 
( 165 ) 
 
 knowledge of the figure and academical 
 ftiil, which the other wanted. As to 
 Mr, Bunbury, who had fo happily fuc- 
 ceeded in the vein of humour and carl- 
 catura, he has for fome time paft alto- 
 gether relinquifhed it* for the more amia- 
 ble purfuit of beautiful nature: this in- 
 deed, is not to be wondered at, when we 
 recoiled that he has, in Mrs. Bunbury * 
 fo admirable an exemplar of the molt 
 fin i fined grace and beauty, continually at 
 his elbow. But (to fay all that occurs 
 to me on this fubjed) perhaps it may be 
 reafonably doubted^ whether the being 
 much converfant with Hogarth’s method 
 of expofing roeannefs, deformity and vice, 
 in many of his works, is not rather a 
 dangerous, or, at lead, a worthlefs pur- 
 fuit ; which, if it does not find a falfe 
 relifh and a love of and fearch after fatyr 
 and buffoonery in the fpedator, is at 
 leaft not unlikely to give him one. Life 
 is fhort ; and the little leifure of it is 
 much better laid out upon that fpecies of 
 L 3 ar$ 
 
( 166 ) 
 
 art, which is employed about the amiable 
 and the admirable, as it is more likely to 
 be attended with better and nobler con- 
 fequences to ourfelves. Thefe two pur- 
 fuits in art, may be compared with two 
 fets of people with whom we might af- 
 fociate ; if we give ourfelves up to the 
 Foot's, the Kenrick's, &c. we fhall be 
 continually bulled, and padling in what- 
 ever is ridiculous, faulty, and vicious in 
 life i whereas there are thofe to be found, 
 with whom we fhould be in the conftant 
 purfuit and fludy of all that gives a value 
 and a dignity to human nature. 
 
 Near Hogarth I intended to bring in a 
 very able malterly artift, Mortimer, whom 
 the public foolilhly let flip through their 
 lingers, without deriving the advantages of 
 which his abilities were capable ; it gave 
 me no fm all concern (as I once told him^ 
 that he fhould ilink away from his own 
 character, and wafte his time upon un„ 
 meaning imitations of the banditti's of 
 Salvator Rofa, a man much his inferior, 
 
 when- 
 
( i6 7 ) 
 
 whenever he would chufe to exert him- 
 felf. 
 
 Our nobility and gentry are rather to 
 be pitied than blamed ; they have been 
 grolsly milled and abufed by a fuccefiion 
 of nonfenlical cant and jargon* about the 
 inacceflible fuperiority of old pictures* or 
 they never would fuffer great abilities to 
 be thus loft* by employing thofe who 
 poflefs them upon worthlefs trifles* where 
 nothing can be Ihewn. This illuflon has 
 been principally kept up by interefted 
 dealers in ancient ware* both at home 
 and abroad* in which they have been 
 much affifted by feeble artifts* who* 
 hopelefs and without pretenfions to any 
 reputation for themfelves* are Induftri- 
 ous and artful enough to lend their little 
 fupport to any fcheme that lhall keep 
 back and prevent others who, from na- 
 ture and education* are better qualified* 
 more efpecially as there is fuch a fair 
 opportunity ©f concealing their real mo- 
 
 L 4 tives* 
 
( i68 ) 
 
 lives, under the amiable appearances of 
 modefty, candour, and a veneration of 
 ancient worth. If the liberty was al- 
 lowed me of mentioning fome of my 
 brethren of the academy, what might J 
 Mot fay of the knowing and elegant Ci- 
 priani, of that able and manly artiffc 
 Dance, and the other great painters 
 whom the academy feledted for that work 
 of St. Paul’s ; were I to add (whom the 
 academy would have added were it then 
 poffible) that ingenious Proteus, Gainf- 
 borough, who is fo becoming and fo 
 excellent in every fhape he affumes, 
 the ever to be admired Zoffany, and 
 the m after ly, Wright, of Derby ? What 
 new beauties, harmonious and fafcinat- 
 ing arrangement of colours may we not 
 expedt, when fuch an artift as Peters is 
 indulged the free fcope of his fancy in 
 an extenftve fubjedt ? Need I infift what 
 an acquifttion of reputation it would be 
 to this country to have the abilities of 
 
 theft 
 
{ 169 ) 
 
 thefe % artifts put to the ftretch in fome 
 great Hiftorical Work. They may have 
 their faults, and where one is perhaps 
 defective, the other may be excellent y 
 but this ever was, and ever will be the 
 cafe amongft men of genius and great 
 abilities ; generous allowance mu ft be 
 made in this art, (efpecially) where, 
 though the mind may perhaps com- 
 prehend, yet the powers of man will 
 certainly never be able to execute with 
 equal perfection all the parts of fuch an 
 art, as is not even confined by the 
 
 X It may be not improper to inform the reader, 
 that this account having been written fome time, as i 
 had an intention of publiftiing it in April laft, it was 
 ©ccafionally read to many friends, and amongft others 
 to Mr. Valentine Green, a little before his trip to Paris, 
 On his return he has, in a very fenfible fpirited letter 
 addrefled to Sir Joftiua Reynolds, laid before the pub- 
 lic many pertinent and excellent remarks oa the efta. 
 feliftiment of the arts, as well in England as in France; 
 and I pm happy to obferve, that where he has had 
 ©ccafton to touch upon any of thofe matters I had 
 fead to him, they have acquired no fmall force and 
 improvement by his manner of treating them. 
 
 vifible 
 
( J 7° ) 
 
 vlfible and adtual world 3 but (what i§ 
 much more) by intellectual abliract com- 
 binations, (in which confifts the very 
 effence of this art) it has within its 
 grafp all thofe poffibilities of comple- 
 tion and perfedt exigence, which the 
 mind feeks for, and with which only 
 it can be fully fatisfied. A great artift 
 can now hardly commit grofs faults, and 
 criticifm is ill employed about what may 
 be negledted or deficient in great works, 
 where the attention is fo much better 
 directed to what is great and admirable. 
 Let the public do but their part, let them 
 contrive a generous emancipation for our 
 men of genius, by affording them fuch 
 opportunity of employment as may put 
 their faculties to the ftretch 3 and I am 
 confident that the boundaries of art will 
 be enlarged. Foreigners may inful t us, 
 by ftill faying, that our artifts want abili- 
 ties for great works 3 but they are mif- 
 taken, it is quite the reverie : to fay the 
 truth, this matter lies entirely at the 
 
 door 
 
( * 7 * ) 
 
 door of the great and the wealthy, who, 
 from the general flimfmefs of their pur- 
 fuits, and their want of ceconomy and 
 virtue, are not able to employ our artifts 
 upon great works. To put the immenfe 
 fums that are played for quite out of the 
 queftion, even the half of what feme in- 
 dividuals annually throw away merely 
 for waiters and cards, would more than 
 pay one of thofe artifts for a noble 
 pidture | fo that four of thofe great 
 individuals, by refraining from play but 
 for one year, might even, with the faving 
 of this paper, packthread, and attendance 
 money, gratify the wifhes of the academy, 
 and do themfelves the credit of prefenting 
 St. Paul’s Cathedral with thofe Eight 
 Hiftorical Pidtures, which would remain 
 as a monument of their own public fpirit, 
 as well as of the abilities of thofe acade- 
 micians ; and the amiable prelate who 
 now fo worthily fills the See of Lon« 
 don, is too much a friend to the Mufes, 
 
 and 
 
( J 7 2 ) 
 
 and an enemy to gaming, to put a nega- 
 tive upon fiich an offering. 
 
 Behind Phidias, I have introduced 
 Giles Huffey, a name that never occurs 
 to me without frefh grief, fhame, and 
 horror, at the mean wretched cabal of 
 mechanics, for they deferve not the name 
 of artifts ; and their ftill meaner runners 
 and affiftants that could have co-operated 
 to cheat fuch an artift out of the exercife 
 of abilities, that were fo admirably cal- 
 culated to have railed this country to 
 an immortal reputation, and for the 
 ihigheft fpecies of excellence. Why will 
 the great, who can have no intereft but 
 in the glory of the country, why will 
 they fuffer any dirty, whifpering me- 
 dium to interfere between them and 
 fuch characters as Mr. Huffey, who 
 appears to have been no lefs amiable as 
 a man, than he was admirable as an 
 artift ? When by underhand artifices 
 coldnefs once takes place, all the reft 
 
 fol- 
 
( i73 ) 
 
 follows of courfe ; pride is alarmed oe 
 both fides, and a thoufand to one but a 
 fettled diflike and animofi ty will follow. 
 Thus are people of the beft and .noblefl: 
 intentions wickedly feparated, (without 
 knowing why) upon whole union the 
 glory of the country, and the advance- 
 ment of the art, does altogether de- 
 pend. To prevent this happening in 
 future, (for weaknefs will ever avail it- 
 felf of trick and cunning) it would be 
 advifeable, in fuch cafes, to deal openly 
 and without any referves, and to fuffer 
 a great art ill to have an opportunity of 
 deleting thofe dark impo fit ions which 
 perifh when they are brought into day* 
 light ; delicacy dan have nothing to fear; 
 for perhaps there is in the world no- 
 thing that can better bear fcrutiny and 
 clofe infpedtion, than the vie ws, defigns* 
 intentions, and conduct of a great artift, 
 wholly occupied with the love of 
 glory. 
 
 The public are likely never to know 
 
 the 
 
( i74 ) 
 
 the whole of what they have loft m 
 Mr. H alley ; the perfections that were 
 poffible to him, but a very few artifts 
 can conceive $ and it would be time 
 loft to attempt giving any adequate idea 
 of them in words. My attention was 
 iirft turned to this great character* by 
 a converfation I had very early in life 
 with Mr. Stuart, better known by the 
 name of Athenian Stuart, an epithet 
 richly merited by the efiential advantages 
 Mr. Stuart had rendered the public^ 
 by his being fo very inftrumental in 
 eftablifhing juft ideas, and a true tafte 
 for the Grecian arts. The difcourfes of 
 this truly intelligent and very candid 
 artift, and what I faw of the Works of 
 Hufley, had altogether made fuch an 
 impreffion on my mind, as may be 
 conceived, but cannot be exprefled. 
 With fervour I went abroad, eager to 
 retrace all Huffey’s fteps, through the 
 Greeks, through Rafaelle, through dif- 
 fedted nature, and to add to what he had 
 
 been 
 
( 175 ) 
 
 been cruelly torn away from by a la- 
 borious, intenfe ftudy and inveftigatioo. 
 of the Venetian fchooL In the hours 
 of relaxation, I naturally endeavoured 
 to recommend myfelf to the acquaint™ 
 ance of fuch of Mr, Hufiey's intimates 
 as were ftill living ; they always fpoke 
 of him with delight ; and from the 
 whole of what I could learn abroad, 
 added to the information I received from 
 my very amiable and venerable friend 
 Mr, Mofer, fince my return, HulTey 
 mu ft have been one of the moil: in- 
 offeniive, moft amiable, friendly, and 
 companionable of men y and the fartheft 
 removed from all fpirit of ftrife and con- 
 tention, indeed by much too far, or he 
 had never been neceffitated to quit his 
 ground, like a defeated man, and leave 
 not only the art, but bis own character, 
 in the hands of his bafe antagonifts, to 
 be dreffed out in a horrid, difgufting way, 
 as a man moody, glouting, full of ima- 
 ginary terrors and fufpicions, and pre- 
 
 paring 
 
( *7 6 ) 
 
 paring himfelf for a fpeCtre in every 
 corner. This odious character of fuch 
 a man was circulated by thofe hypocrites 
 who knew it to be falfe, and was readily 
 adopted by the mifguided herd, who, 
 without knowing any thing of the mat- 
 ter, were weak enough to be duped into 
 the belief of it. All men know that 
 fuch wrong-headed characters are not 
 only poffible, but have exifted, do and 
 will exift ; but the immorality lay in 
 applying it at random, without require 
 ing fufficlent proof or evidence. How- 
 ever, the hiftory of all ages and nations 
 fhews this to have been a common game 
 in the world 5 and that as the virtues of 
 human nature have not all been bu- 
 ried with our anceftors, neither are its 
 vices. 
 
 My friends at Bologna will blame me 
 for omitting our Lodovico, for whom I 
 had fuch fondnefs ; Agoftino alfo, Guer- 
 cino and Guido 5 but I was tired, and 
 refolved to content myfelf with Domini- 
 
 chino 
 
( *77 ) 
 
 chino, and his mafter Annibal. It is very 
 remarkable that this great man Annibal 
 Carrache, who came to fuch a place as 
 Rome, and fo fhortly after the death of 
 M. Angelo, fhould have been fo far 
 overlooked, even by that court, as never 
 to have been employed about any papal 
 work, and had the additional mortifica* 
 tion of feeing all court favour em- 
 ployment, and even the honour of 
 knighthood, flung away upon fuch a 
 reptile as GiofefFo d’Arpino however, 
 let no man be difcouraged, Annibal 
 Carrache is, notwithftanding all this, 
 the glory of his age ; whiift the Pope, 
 the Court, and Cavalier d’Arpino, are 
 rotting in oblivion. 
 
 In the top of this part of the pifture, I 
 have attempted to glance at what aftrono- 
 mers call the Syftem of Syftems where 
 the fixed ftars confidered as fo many funs, 
 each with his feveral planets, are re- 
 volving round the Great Gaufe of all 
 . things. As in my apprehenfion too 
 
 M much 
 
( * 7 8 ) 
 
 .. ' • i . 
 
 much has been afcribed to the proper- 
 ties of inert matter , it was my wi(h 
 to reprefent every thing here as effeded 
 by intelligence ; accordingly each fyfteai 
 is carried along in this revolution by an 
 angel; the points of the fingers form 
 the poles or axis on which each fphere 
 diurnally. turns, if the exprefiion be al- 
 lowed me, and the fituation of the 
 hands gives the polar inclination, obli- 
 quity, &c. I have introduced angels 
 incenfing, &c. to mark the reference to 
 the Deity fill! ftronger. Though there is 
 but a. filial! portion of this great circle 
 feen, yet I fiiould hope there is enough 
 to hint the idea to a man of any 
 fancy. 
 
 We come now to that corner where I 
 have endeavoured to give feme little idea 
 of the place of final punifhment or Tar- 
 tarus. I have introduced a kind of land- 
 scape diftant view of a dreary continent, a 
 volcano vomiting out flames and men, a 
 fea and catarad of fire coming forward 
 
 and 
 
( i?9 ) 
 
 and tumbling into a dark gulph, where 
 the eye is loft, and from whence ifliie 
 clouds of black fmoke, and two large 
 hands, one of which holds a fire- 
 fork, and the other is pulling down 
 two women by the hair, who make part 
 of a group of large figures, which are 
 bound together by ferpents, and confifts 
 of a warrior, a glutton, a fpend thrift, a 
 detractor, a mifer, and an ambitious 
 man. As the order of the garter is 
 confidered as the moft honourable of 
 all the orders of knighthood, I thought 
 it likely to be the moft intelligible cha- 
 racter! ft ic of vanity, or this vice of am- 
 bition, more efpecially as only the lower 
 limbs of the figure appeared. The Game - 
 Jier , or Spendthrift, is under the Mifer 9 
 with a fiend wound about his neck, who 
 by the hour-glafs it is holding before 
 him, as a kind of fecond confcience, is 
 goading him on to the recollection of 
 the time he had negleCted and mifufed : 
 it is not neceffary to fuppofe, that the 
 
 M 2 cards 
 
( i So ) 
 
 cards and dice he has in his hand, had 
 been ufed fraudulently; no, I have taken 
 it upon the lighted; eftimate, it will be 
 fufficient if his crime amounted to no- 
 thing more than the wafting and deftroy- 
 ing that time, upon thofe trifles which 
 was given him to be employed in adive 
 virtue. We may compliment ourfelves 
 with the titles of innocents and in often - 
 fives; but thefe deceitful illufory nega- 
 tives amount to nothing. We are formed 
 with certain capabilites, which the rela- 
 tion we bear to fociety, to the whole 
 moral and even natural world, calls upon 
 us to exert and dutifully to render our- 
 felves as perfed and as extenfively ufeful 
 as we can. By this the body is preferved 
 in health and vigour, and the mind ac- 
 quires that capacity, foundnefs, and that 
 equal, happy temperament which confti- 
 totes the felicity of our nature. Tho’ all 
 men may not be capable of this in the 
 extent, yet many are in the degree, and 
 there are none but may be equal to the 
 
 attempt 
 
( i8i ) 
 
 attempt and the intention. Be it ever 
 remembered that the higheft authority 
 affirms, that the ufe and encreafc of the 
 talent will be exacted from us, and not 
 merely its prefervation. 
 
 As to the warrior, I am ready to admit 
 that wars and the fpilling of human 
 blood, may be fometimes neceffary, jufti- 
 fiable, and perhaps even praife worthy ; 
 but it is fo much oftner otherwise, that 
 we may prefume it to be the' cafe in this 
 in dance ; and, without further remark, 
 pafs on to that dete (table fpecies of mif- 
 chief in which we fo much abound, the 
 ’ Anonymous I) et raff or , with his horrid 
 face, appearing under an innocent placid 
 looking mafic, a dagger in one hand, and 
 falfhood and fcandal in the other, under 
 the guife and fignature of a lover of merit, 
 truth, and juftice. This will , ferve as a 
 kind of genus, including all the feveral 
 fpecies of thefe horrid aflaffins, from the 
 volunteer, who writes to gratify his own 
 occafionai fpleen, rage, and envy, to the 
 
 M 3 hireling 
 
( i8a ) 
 
 hireling who follows this bufinefs in an. 
 orderly profeflional way, and is ready to 
 ftretch his talents from a letter to a pri- 
 vate houfe, to an effay in the news- paper* 
 from that to a pamphlet, from profe to 
 verfe, to bemire or bedizen, juft as his 
 employer fhall direcft ; thefe are of dif- 
 ferent degrees of fkill, may be hired at 
 all prices, and can adapt a few terms of 
 art and common-place topics of praife, 
 cenfure or abufe, to all ranks and pro- 
 feflions. Many painters ufed formerly 
 to keep open houfe for them, and as far 
 as I can learn, this practice is not yet to- 
 tally laid aiide, If this be the liberty of 
 the prefs, furely we derive more evil 
 than benefit from it ; all worth and 
 ability is by the means of this glorious 
 Palladium, reduced to an ordinary dirty 
 level, and fo confounded with whatever 
 is bafe, that a reputation is hardly worth 
 the fee-king. Truth and falfhood are fo 
 artfully perplexed, that it requires an in- 
 timate acquaintance with public . men* 
 
 from 
 
( i§3 ) 
 
 from the fir Pc to the Lift, in order to 
 prevent our miftaking them for the very 
 reverfe of what they are 3 it is impoffibie 
 to be too cautious and wary in this 
 matter 5 and I fhall ever recoiled’, with 
 fhame and confufion, fome vexatious 
 miftakes into which I have been led 
 myfelf, by a too precipitate and im- 
 plicit reliance upon the fpecious reports 
 and appearances by which 1 was duped 
 in common with many others. To con- 
 fine my obfervation, to my own humble 
 fhed 5 even I have had more than my 
 fhare in this national calamity, the viru- 
 lent and very particularly marked abufe 
 that has conftantly followed me for fome 
 years back, may, as my friends have 
 often told me, be an honourable tefti- 
 mony in my favour, and the proofs 
 they alledge from the experience of all 
 ages, are too flattering for me to dis- 
 pute the propriety of their application 
 in my own cafe. I well know, that what- 
 ever excellence will enfure a man credit 
 M 4 with 
 
(184) 
 
 with pofterity, will infallibly raife him 
 fteady and deadly enemies amongft his 
 rivals and cotemporaries ; and that they 
 will be more induftrious to mifreprefent 
 and abufe, than his friends will be to 
 juftify him. But I would gladly have 
 difpenfed with the honour of all this, to 
 be relieved from the mifchief of it. I 
 have reafon to believe that it has greatly 
 contributed to fhorten as well as to em- 
 bitter the life of my poor father, an 
 honeft, plain man, who at diftance from 
 this great metropolis, and unlhilled in its 
 ways, naturally concluded, that his fon 
 was the moil; worthlefs of all our artifrs* 
 or fo much unufual labour and pains 
 would not have been employed to prove 
 it. Thus people, who employ anony- 
 mous writers, may perpetrate any fraud 
 or wickednefs with impunity, when they 
 coniine their attack to the man who can- 
 not afford to avail himfelf of the pro- 
 tection of the laws. 
 
 It is not the nice difeernment and truly 
 
 cnb? 
 
( i8 5 ) 
 
 critical fkill of our anonymous manu- 
 facturers of characters, that is to be 
 dreaded, nothing lefs, it is their villainy, 
 their total want of honour, of truth, of 
 juftice, and every other equitable prin- 
 ciple $ they find it eafy to throw dirt at 
 any thing ; they calculate that fome of 
 it will flick, and they are not likely to fce 
 much midaken, whild there is fo much 
 weaknefs and Gullibility in the world, and 
 fo many people made up of meannefs and 
 odentation, who will be ready enough to 
 adopt and give circulation to any thing 
 that may appear at lead a plaufible reafon 
 why they do not employ and encourage. 
 But few can examine and fift out the truth 
 of things, and fewer dill would be at any 
 pains about it. But all, or at lead the 
 greater part of this odious mafs of vile- 
 nefs and wrong, would be in a great 
 meafure remedied, by obliging thofe 
 fcribbling manufacturers of character to 
 lay afide the mafk, and affix their names 
 to the cenfures or praifes they have been 
 
 em- 
 
( 1 86 ) 
 
 employed to circulate. Had this been 
 the cafe for fome time paft, no injury 
 could have followed from the abefe of a 
 J— — , a H— , and a very long, &e, 
 their veracity and inducements for what 
 they did, and the veracity and motives 
 of a Sixteen-firing Jack, or any other 
 villain, who fubfifted by depredation . on 
 the public, would at lead be regarded 
 with equal abhorrence. 
 
 The Italian, French, and other wri- 
 ters, who have criticized the works of 
 their artifts, were men of known ability, 
 who had a reputation to fupport or to 
 lofe, and who would not fuffer either 
 their difcernment, information, or their 
 fincerity, candour, and judgment, to be 
 brought into queftion by that pofterity, 
 whole approbation they wifhed to obtain. 
 Vafari, Borghini, D.olci, Bellori, Freart, 
 Felibien, the Marquis Malvafia, the Ca- 
 valier Ridolfi, Du Frefnoy, Du Piles, 
 &c. were very different in their views 
 and capacities $ fome more attentive to- 
 
 the 
 
( i*7-) 
 
 the mechanical, others to the Ideal parts 
 of the art 5 but all equally holding them- 
 felves bound, not to difgrace that Name 
 they affixed to their works, by any par- 
 tial, inequitable judgments : accordingly 
 their writings have given inftru&ion and 
 pleafure, and the world has had very lit- 
 tle occafion to differ, and to reverfe any 
 of their judgments. We are not without 
 characters of this kind, whofe names are 
 too well known and efleemed by the pub- 
 lie, to need my mentioning of them; 
 feme of thefe are, to my own knowledge, 
 highly capable of foaring above common- 
 place criticifm, and entering into the 
 very pith and effence of art. From fuck 
 as thefe would they but write, an ingeni- 
 ous artifl could have nothing to dread* 
 whether they were friends to other artiffs, 
 or enemies to himfelf, Such writers 
 would feel themfelves Humiliated by a 
 nice feofe of honour, would find it ne- 
 ceffary to eonfider the whole of a work, 
 to eflimate fairly the importance of the 
 
( s§8 ) 
 
 Ipecies of excellence it may poflefs, whe- 
 ther it were fuperiorly excellent in one or 
 in many, he would fpecify the degree of 
 this excellence, would conceal or omit 
 nothing that could be of importance, and 
 would make every generous, candid con- 
 ceffion, before he would venture to flake 
 his own name and good repute againft 
 the artifl he may cenfure, when unbi- 
 affed pofterity was to determine between 
 them. 
 
 As to thofe writers who may find it ne- 
 cefifary to difpenfe with thefe formalities 
 of reafon and juftice ; when, from kind- 
 nefs and partiality, they are fometimes 
 induced to beftow upon a friend, the 
 founding title of the firft Painter, the 
 great Painter of the prefent age, and 
 other fuch vague indefinite praife, as fpe- 
 cifies nothing but the writers good wifhes, 
 and leaves pofterity entirely in the dark, 
 and to divine in the beft manner they may 
 be able, in what this excellence and ex- 
 traordinary fuperiority over the other co~ 
 
 tem^ 
 
( 1 89 ) 
 
 temporary painters, might have confiftec^ 
 whether it was in the fertility, the no- 
 velty, the dignity, the originalty, and 
 the extent of his invention (for as this is a 
 matter of the firft importance, it is proba- 
 bly what pofterity will firft enquire after) 
 or whether this extraordinary fuperiority 
 eonfifted in a penetrating, deep judgment, 
 in the ufeful application of piety, of wif- 
 dom, of important morality, or of ele- 
 gant, clafficai erudition, or whether he 
 was fuperiorly eminent for his extenfive 
 knowledge and academical fkill, in re- 
 prefenting all the parts of the human 
 body, in all the varieties of character, of 
 adlion, and of paflion, in which they may 
 have been diverfified in thofe admirable 
 pictures ; he mail then have produced, 
 to have warranted all this fuperior prefe- 
 rence, though unfortunately no fueh pic- 
 tures bad come down to them. But to 
 look for thefe very effential matters a- 
 mongft portrait painters, is like looking 
 for wool amongft goats * and yet one 
 
 fhould 
 
( I 9° ) 
 
 fhould imagine that thefe very effential 
 particulars, muft naturally be uppermoft in 
 the minds of knowing and learned men, 
 when they think of excellence in the arts, 
 and mean either diredly or by implication 
 to decide upon the pretenfions of rival 
 artifts. 
 
 The other day, happening to Humble 
 upon a whole length pidture of George 
 the Firft, I believe (but his in one of 
 the rooms at Northumberland Houfe) I 
 felt myfelf irreiiftibly led into a kind 
 of reverie ; this pidture, thought I, muft, 
 doubtlefs, have been painted by the artift 
 of higheft fafhion in his day ; he muft, 
 confequently, have made money, kept 
 open houfe, and had it often in his power 
 to oblige his friends, and was, in his 
 turn, loved by them. Some of thefe 
 friends might have been writers, either 
 occafionally, or by profefficn, and they 
 have, perhaps, recorded his name (more, 
 to be fore, according to the meafore of 
 their own affedions and wifhes to oblige, 
 
 than 
 
( I9 1 ) 
 
 than to any merit they could discover in 
 foch work as this before me). 
 
 Now, if one of thefe writers, who 
 are pleafed fo liberally to bellow great 
 characters, was Handing here ; let us fup- 
 pofe him to be Pope, and at his elbow a 
 native of Otaheite, or rather a cultivated 
 Athenian, (whofe company would be 
 more acceptable) how could fuch a 
 writer juftify himfelf, what anfwer could 
 he give to the, queftions that might be 
 afked ? Was it . becaufe that this Mr, 
 Jervoife had ftudied no more of the 
 human figure than the mere face, that 
 he has managed all the reft of this 
 pifture in fo incorrect, flovenly, and. 
 ftrange a way : what is this intended for, 
 a leg; and this, and this, what is it? 
 Fie upon it, my dear Pope, is this a 
 work of art ? and by that hero in whom 
 your liberality has united fo many fine 
 qualities, the grace of Apelles ; the what 
 have you called it, of Zeuxis, of — 
 Is this, indeed, a painter of eminence in 
 
 your 
 
( 192 ) 
 
 your eftimation ? You mud have been 
 without eyes, as well as reflection, if 
 you was ferious. 
 
 I am not fo unreafonable as to look for 
 any judicious feledlion, or ideal beauty, 
 in the portrait of an individual ; thefe 
 are, I well know, referved for the more 
 fublime purfuits of geniufes of the higher 
 order, whom alone we fpeak of and 
 praife when we think of eminence in the 
 arts : but even to defcend to thofe por- 
 trait matters, which fo ridiculoufly oc- 
 cupy fo much of the attention of you 
 Englifhmen ; yet even to execute in a 
 becoming manner, this branch of the art, 
 it requires a fubordinate and inferior fkill 
 of its own. Every individual being a 
 fyftem within itfelf, compofed of a trunk 
 or body, and its extremities or members, 
 each of thofe parts having alfo its lefler 
 members and fubdiviflons ; thefe at leaft 
 might and ought to have been either 
 given or fufliciently indicated : if the legs 
 and thighs have not all the beauty, fitnefs 
 
 and 
 
( *93 ) 
 
 and eafy grace, that we beftow upon our 
 Apollo ; if the arms and ffioulders, the 
 thorax, the abdomen, and the hips, are 
 not ft ri kingly beautiful or expreffive, yet, 
 at lead, all thefe parts have fome decided 
 form and fttuation, as well as a certain 
 affinity to each other, which indicate the 
 character and habits of the individual; and 
 is it not certain, that to reprefent in an 
 artift-like way, each of thefe parts requires 
 the fame ftudy and fkill that is employed 
 in acquiring a capacity to reprefent the 
 face, Muft you then be reminded, that 
 reputation, honour and exalted character* 
 is the great palm and prime reward that is 
 fo ardently fought for with fuch un- 
 wearied pains and toil, by thofe who have 
 devoted their lives to the purfuit of inge- 
 nious arts ; and can you forget that con- 
 fcience, juftice, and honefty, ought to be 
 confulted by thofe who will take the dis- 
 tribution of this reward into their — — . 
 Hold, hold, Mr. Cenfor, exclaimed Pope, 
 t]*e arts are, I find, ferious things with 
 
 N you- 
 
( i94 ) 
 
 I 
 
 you Athenians $ but, furely, there needs not 
 all this formality and argument about the 
 trifle in queftion ^ my partiality for a 
 friend has, perhaps, led me into an adt 
 not ftriftly right ; and yet, after all, 
 as Jarvis and his cotemporaries were 
 equally confined to the fame low pur- 
 fait ; and it may be with but little dif- 
 ference in the degree of their fkill, 
 ibnie allowance might be made for my 
 rafh interference, where theobjedl was of 
 fuch little confequence ; in difcriminating 
 between the merits of Tweedle-dumm 
 and Tweedle-dee, though judgment 
 would be filent, yet friendfhip will deter- 
 mine the preference : 1 hope it is not ne- 
 ceflary to affure you, that if either ge- 
 nius, or high abilities, had the leaft con- 
 cern in the controverfy, my candour and 
 integrity fhould never have been queftion- 
 ed ; and, what is more, if any one had 
 dared to diftribute charadter and prefe- 
 rence amongft our poets, in the filching 
 clandeftine way you fo juftly cenfure, 
 
 ©very 
 
( 195 ) 
 
 every body will do me the juftice to ao 
 knowledge, that I fhould have been the 
 firft to reprobate it. 
 
 Men are much more liable to be deceived 
 by dwelling on the artfully bloated names 
 of living artifts, than they could be by the 
 confideration of their works, if we caneafi- 
 ly, and with little fharoe, bring ourfelves 
 to fay, the fublime, or the elegant, or the 
 ingenious, or the great, the mailer painter, 
 Mr. Such, or fuch-a-one, we /hall find 
 our tone much lowered, and our found- 
 ing epithets greatly diminifhed, when 
 we mention their works ; when we fay, 
 fuch a portrait of a gentleman, of a lady, 
 
 of a family, remarkable for what * 
 
 In a word, the contefts of portrait paint- 
 ers for fa/hion and precedency, are of no 
 other importance to fuperior art ; but as 
 they happen to divert the attention of 
 the public from it, and our pofterity 
 will concern themfelves no more about 
 the differences between the Hudfon’s, 
 the Vander bank’s, the Clofterman’s, the 
 N 2 Knel- 
 
( 196 ) 
 
 Kneller's, the Jervoife’s, the Richard* 
 ion's, and the other unimportant triflers 
 of the next age (if there fhould be any 
 fuch) than we do about thofe of the laft. 
 When the work is of no confequence, 
 *tis no matter by whom it was executed. 
 Moral and good writers fhould accom- 
 pany their panegyricks with the reafons 
 that juftifv it, if it was only for ex* 
 ample fake to others : what ought to be 
 of weight with them is, that it might 
 help to put a flop to the fcandalous 
 pradtice of our hireling fcribblers, who 
 value themfelves upon being able, by 
 only adopting this vague, general praife, 
 or cenfure, to pull down, or to fet up 
 any character, be the reafon and fadt what 
 it may. 
 
 Floating down this fiery cataradt are 
 many figures, three of whom reprefent 
 the abufes of power. An enraged king 
 tearing his hair, and beating his head 
 with that enfign of command he had fo 
 ill employed 5 his beard and antique drefs 
 
 were 
 
( 197 ) 
 
 were Intended to intimate, that he had 
 been afofolute, and lived in times prior to 
 the adtual, and underftood limitations of 
 monarchy. The fecond is one of thofe 
 Popes who had endeavoured, through 
 the influence of his ecclefiaftical charac- 
 ter, to grafp at that earthly power and 
 dominion, which was abfolutely dis- 
 claimed by the divine author of our 
 faith, as utterly repugnant to the doc- 
 trines and practice he had laid down for 
 his followers ; I have, accordingly, made 
 that world, which was the object of his 
 ambition, the inftrument of his punifli- 
 ment, and reprefented him with a fiery 
 terraqueous globe on his (boulders, 
 preaching in the flames, like another 
 Phlegyas. His proper counterpart, the 
 wretch on his left, holds that execrable 
 engine of hypocrify, injuftice, and cru- 
 elty, the Solemn League and Covenant , a 
 Species of Croifade, equally fubverfive of 
 peace and good government ; and much 
 pore favage 5 deftruftive, and odious in 
 
( ) 
 
 its confequences. The Hiftory of Man- 
 kind can fhew nothing more horrid than 
 the afpedt of religion, as it has been ex- 
 hibited by thofe gloomy intollerant mif- 
 creants : they might be allowed, with 
 impunity, to arrogate to themfelves the 
 title of Saints, and monopolized Heaven, 
 and confined it to what limits they 
 pleafed. But that they fhculd fet up 
 legal pretenfions to the exclufive foie pro- 
 prietorfhip of the Earth alfo, and rake 
 together for their own peculiar ufe, all 
 the little gratifications and enjoyments of 
 it, and fhould dare to make ufe of force, 
 to burn and deflroy in confequence, 
 Atheifts might well deny a Providence, if 
 a hell had not been prepared for fuch 
 complicated, fuch finished wickednefs. 
 
 I am, however, happy in believing, 
 that this group is likely to be of the leaft 
 ufe of any in the pidlure ^ for kings are, 
 at prefent, fo circumfcribed by laws, 
 that they can fcarcely have any faults but 
 in common with their fubje&s. The 
 
 Papacy., 
 
( I 99 ) 
 
 Papacy, for feme time paft, has been lia- 
 ble to few or no objections of any mo- 
 ment $ and until ignorance and barbarifm 
 return again, but little annoyance can be 
 apprehended from that quarter : and foine 
 of the defeendants of the fifth monarchy, 
 men and covenanters, may be numbered 
 amongft the moft difinterefted friends of 
 equal laws and liberty, both civil and re- 
 ligious. However, thefe figures may 
 ferve as fc are -crows, and help to remind 
 us how necefiary it may be to watch and 
 pray, not againft thefe only, but againft 
 the encroachments of all deferiptions of 
 men, fince all equally love to place them- 
 felves in power, and to have others in de- 
 pen dance upon them : and, in truth, they 
 are not much more biameable and vicious, 
 who attempt thefe things, than the others 
 are, who, from caufes not lefs reprehenfible* 
 have fuffered them to take place, by either 
 wilfully or inattentively neglecting to 
 provide the neceffary bounds and 
 ftraintSc 
 
 N 4 
 
 Having 
 
( 200 ) 
 
 Having now arrived at the end of the 
 laft pidiure, i fhalljuft obferve, that it 
 was my wilh, when I began the work, 
 to make pictures for the porch (if haply 
 my abilities and circumftances permitted 
 it) where fome future Zeno might find 
 a ufeful text, which, with his amplyfi- 
 cation, would be a means of inciting his 
 hearers to the purfuit of true patriotifm 
 and true glory, by the exertions of adtive, 
 genuine virtue. As to the account of 
 this work, which is thrown together in 
 thefe papers, I have given myfelf no 
 great folicitude about any order and ar- 
 rangement, my intention being only to 
 colledt the materials for a book, not to 
 make one : accordingly I have followed 
 whatever momentary refledtions occurred 
 to me, whilft they appeared either agree- 
 able or ufeful ; and in whatever place, 
 without much regarding whether they 
 broke in upon the narrative of what was 
 done in the pidtures or not, I have been, 
 perhaps, more circumilantial in the ac- 
 count 
 
( 201 ) 
 
 fcount of thefe pictures, than was gene^ 
 rally neceffary ; but it arofe partly from 
 a delire to gratify the curiolity of an ami- 
 able friend, who has it not in his power 
 to fee them $ and partly to amufe myfelf 
 during a ftate of very difagreeable fuf- 
 penfc, in which it was impoflible for me 
 to paint, whillt it w as fo doubtful whe- 
 ther I fhouid ever be able to obtain that 
 exhibition of my work, which was to be 
 my foie reward from thofe for whom I 
 had undertaken it 5 however, this ac- 
 count may be of ufe ; and, perhaps, af- 
 ford fome entertainment to others alfo* 
 But, as it was hurried on without re- 
 vifion or correction, the indulgent reader 
 will kindly exeufe the many inaccuracies 
 and defeats he m u ft have met with: my 
 endeavours have extended no further than 
 Amply to point out, in a homely, painter- 
 like, and very curfory way, fome few of 
 the leading ideas that occurred to me 
 upon the variety of matter the fubjeCt of 
 fhe work afforded ; if, haply, thofe ideas 
 
 fliould 
 
( 202 j 
 
 fhould merit it, others will polifh, and 
 drefs them out for my advantage, in a 
 manner that it would ill-become me to 
 
 attempt. 
 
 By the next year I fhall be able to go 
 over the whole work, and lick it into 
 fuch general effedt, force of colour, and 
 light, and fhade, as will be more recon- 
 cileable to my own ideas of the neceflary 
 mechanical condudt : feveral crudities 
 
 will be removed by the general accord or 
 harmony ; many parts that are too forci- 
 ble will be weakened ; and many that are 
 too weak will be Axenghtened, and 
 brought forward upon the eye. All 
 thefe fubordinate conflderations I wifhed 
 to referve for an agreeable entertainment, 
 after fo much labour of a more ferious 
 and eflential kind, which required my 
 whole undivided attention ; and, I flatter 
 myfelf, that the Spectator will, next year, 
 own himfelf to have been a little precipi- 
 tate, if he fhould conclude, at prefent, 
 that I am unftudied, and unlkilled in the 
 
 infe- 
 
( 203 ) 
 
 inferior and more trifling confiderations* 
 becaufe I have referved them to the laid 
 I fet out in this work with a firm perfua- 
 fion, that a more intimate union might 
 be effected between the ideal and the me- 
 chanic of the art, than has been generally 
 imagined j but it appeared to me the bell 
 method to fecure the unum necdTariuoi 
 firft. 
 
 With refpeX to many abufes that have 
 been occafionally and freely cenfured, 
 in the courfe of thofe reflexions, I ought 
 to inform the reader, that a much loved 
 and valued friend has been very earneft 
 with me to omit them ^ he urged a great 
 deal about imprudence, the being inat- 
 tentive to my own intereft, the poffibility 
 of offending thofe who might have it in 
 their power to injure me y that many of 
 thofe abufes were, poflibly, very ftroogly 
 fortified with extenfive and powerful con- 
 nexions, and might eafily crufh an un~ 
 proteXed individual, like me, that I would 
 be martyred, and fo forth $ he grew very 
 
 fed- 
 
C 204 ) 
 
 ferious, and I fell a laughing : no, no $ 
 Bothing lefs likely to happen, faid I, 
 your friendfhip for me clouds your judg- 
 ment ; I know you too well not to be 
 allured, that if you were in my fituation, 
 you would fpurn all thofe petty confide- 
 rations when duty required it. You 
 have frankly acknowledged, that you was 
 altogether of my mind, as to the juftice, 
 the integrity, and the pertinence of thofe 
 remarks, and that they contained nothing 
 tinbecon)ing an honeft man, and a good 
 citizen ; nay, you even faid, that it 
 would be evident I had no other objeft 
 ?n view, but the reputation of the coun-. 
 try, and to vindicate, and fupport the 
 dignity of that great line of art, which 
 has ever been the peculiar delight of all 
 cultivated people : allow me, then, to 
 
 laugh at all the reft; and, to allure you, 
 that no injury to me can be apprehended 
 to follow from the printing of thofe re- 
 fiedfions : the nation at large, the nobi- 
 lity md gentry* the learned and iptelli- 
 
 gent^ 
 
( 205 ) 
 
 gent, the prefent age and our pofterity % 
 in a word, the honour or intereft (which 
 is, you know, the fame thing) of all are 
 (fo far as they can be concerned with 
 arts and artifts) embarked in the fame 
 bottom with the caufe I have been main- 
 taining i and if my mode of expreflion 
 ihould unfortunately appear harfh to a 
 few individuals, and that the purfuit of 
 my argument has led me into the invefti^ 
 gallon of matters they might wife un- 
 touched, this being, in its nature, una- 
 voidable, they will have too much gal- 
 lantry to be offended. 
 
 FINIS, 
 
( 2°7 ) 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ‘TPHOSE who may be curious to know 
 how this work came into my hands, 
 the following account will fully inform, 
 them. Immediately upon my connection 
 with the Royal Academy, in a converfa- 
 tion, at one of our dinners, where we 
 chatted a good deal about the concerns of 
 Art, I made a propofal, that, as his 
 Majefty had given us a palace (Old So- 
 merfet Houfe) with a chapel belonging 
 to it | that it would become us jointly to 
 undertake the decorating this chapel with 
 pictures $ that it afforded a good oppor- 
 tunity of convincing the public of the 
 poffibility of ornamenting places of re- 
 ligious worfhip, with fuch pictures as 
 
 might 
 
( 208 ) 
 
 might be ufeful, and could poffibly give 
 no offence in a Proteftant country; that, 
 probably, this example would be followed 
 in other chapels and churches; that it 
 would be opening a new and noble fcene 
 of adtion, would not only be highly or- 
 namental to the country, but would be 
 abfolutely neceffary for the future labour 
 of the many pupils the Academy was 
 breeding up ; adding, withal, an obfer- 
 vation I had made fome little time before 
 at Milan ; that, in one church there (the 
 Domo) there was more work of pi&ures 
 and ftatues, than the whole Academy 
 could be able to execute in a century, 
 even fuppofing them to work every day. 
 Every one came into the propofal with 
 great eagernefs. Sir Jofhua Reynolds 
 propofed, as an amendment, that, inftead 
 of Somerfet chapel, we had better un- 
 dertake St. Paul’s cathedral, which was 
 agreed to ; and he was accordingly com- 
 miflioned to propofe it to the dean and 
 chapter ; they confented, and we had a 
 
 regular 
 
( 209 ) 
 
 regular meeting of the Academy in con- 
 fequence, where Angelica* Barry* Ci- 
 priani, Dance, Reynolds, and Weft* 
 were, by the majority of votes, felefled 
 from the body of the Academy for this 
 purpofe j the matter made fome little 
 noife for a time j but, in the end, came 
 to nothing ; as we were informed in 
 Qdober, 1773* that the Biftiop of London, 
 Dr. Terrick, would not give his confent. 
 
 Very fhortly after our difappointment 
 in the affair of St . Paul’s, I received the 
 following letter from Valentine Green, 
 Efq; mezzotinto engraver to his Majefty* 
 
 S I R, 
 
 Inclofed you receive a copy of refla- 
 tions of the Society for the Encourage- 
 ment of Arts, &c. in the Strand, rela- 
 tive to the decorating of their New Room* 
 in the Adelphi. The favour of your 
 O 
 
 com- 
 
( 21 © ) 
 
 eoffipafry is therefore requefted, to meet 
 the Several artifts whofe names are inferred 
 in fhofe refolutibns, at the Turk's Head 
 Tavern^ Gerrard Street* on Tuefday even- 
 ing, the 5th of April next, at feven 
 O'clock, to determine upon an anfwer to 
 he reported to the Society. The plan 
 referred to in the refolutions Will be, at 
 that time, produced for youf infpedtiom 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 VAL GREEN. 
 
 ■ 
 
 Satijbury Street^ 
 
 March 31 , 1774 , 
 
 Copy 
 
( 211 } 
 
 \ 
 
 Copy of the Reflations of the Society of 
 Arts , Sic, January 28 , 1774* 
 
 Refolded, That in order to the deco- 
 rating the New Room, proper Hiftorical* 
 or Allegorical Pictures be procured, to 
 be painted by the moil eminent artifts, 
 provided fuch pictures can be obtained 
 with convenience to the Society. 
 
 Refolved, That it would be proper for 
 this purpofe, to have eight Hiftorical, 
 and two Allegorical Pictures, 
 
 Refolved, That the fubje&s of the 
 Hiftorical Pictures be taken from fome 
 part of the Englifh Hiftory, and that the 
 fubjedis of the Allegorical Pictures be 
 emblematic dehgns, relative to the infti- 
 tution and views of the Society* 
 
 O 2 
 
 Re- 
 
( 212 ) 
 
 Refohed, That if ten eminent artifts 
 can be found, who are willing to paint 
 the above Pidtures, that the Society 
 Ihould allow them the profits arifing 
 from an exhibition of them, in their 
 New Room, for a proper limited time in 
 one year, in order, in fome meafure, to 
 indemnify them for their time and 
 trouble. 
 
 February the i$th, 
 
 Refohedy That the following artifts are 
 proper perfons to execute the Hiftorical 
 and Allegorical Pidtures. 
 
 Signiora Angelica Kaufman,! 
 Sir Jofhua Reynolds, 
 
 Mr. Weft, 
 
 Mr. Cipriani, 
 Mr. Dance, 
 Mr. Mortimer, 
 Mr. Barry, 
 
 Mr. Wright. 
 
 y Hiftory 
 
 i 
 
 Mr. Romney, (Allegorical 
 
 Mr. Penny, 5 
 
( 21 3 ) 
 
 Refofaed, That the Exhibition pro* 
 pofed, be opened by the Society* for the 
 advantage of the artifls who ill all paint 
 the Hiftorical and Allegorical Pictures* 
 for the decorating the New Great Room, 
 
 February the 
 
 Refolved , To open the exhibition as 
 near the time of the other exhibitions? 
 as the nature of the Society’s affairs will 
 admit, and that it be continued for any 
 time the artifls fliall defire, not exceed- 
 ing four months. 
 
 Refolded, That the dimenfions of the 
 pictures be agreeable to the plan delivered 
 to the Society, by Mr. Green. (This 
 plan confifted of eight Hiftorical Pictures, 
 each 9 feet wide by n feet io inches 
 high ; and two Allegorical Pictures, one 
 8 feet by 5, the other 7 by 5 
 
 *• The pictures I have executed are two of 42 feet 
 in length each, by ]rx feet & inches in Weight'* the 
 other four are each 15-2 in length, by 11 feet 6 inches 
 in height. 
 
 O 3 Re- 
 
( 214 ) 
 
 March the n tb. 
 
 Refolvedy That upon the moft mode- 
 rate computation, the incident expences 
 of an exhibition of the paintings, in the 
 Society’s new room, for four months, 
 will not be lefs than the fum of two hun- 
 dred and eighty flue pounds, viz. 
 
 For the neceffary attendandance of 
 
 Servants - - - -150 
 
 Defcriptive Catalogues -*■ - 45 
 
 Tickets - - 10 
 
 Advertifements - 70 
 
 Removing Seats 7 - - 10 
 
 jC- 285 
 
 J lefolvedy That the Society do provide 
 the neceffary fervants to attend the exhi- 
 bition, be at the expence of the defcrip- 
 tive catalogues, advertifements, and other 
 contingent charges, the whole not ex- 
 ceeding three hundred pounds. 
 
 March 
 
March the 39 th. 
 
 Refolved, That Mr. Green be dehred 
 to acquaint the artifts with the resolutions 
 of the Society, relative to the exhibition, 
 and report their anfwers. 
 
 SAMUEL MORE, 
 
 SECRETARY* 
 
 Sir Jofhua Reynolds did not attend the 
 meeting at the Turk's Head, to give an 
 anfwer to the Society of Arts, but com- 
 miffioned fome one of the company (Mr. 
 Cipriani, I believe) to fignify his refufal ; 
 other members alfo difliked the propofal ; 
 and a letter of refufal was fent to the So- 
 ciety, which I figned along with the reft, 
 though I was extremely forry to lofe fuch 
 an opportunity of ftiewing the little I 
 could do ; and, perhaps, getting fome 
 friends, &c. which (however it might 
 O 4 be 
 
( 2l6 ) 
 
 be with the others) I flood in great 
 need of. 
 
 More than three years after this, viz. 
 in March, 1777, Mr. Green, at my de« 
 fire, propofed to the Society, that one 
 ofthofe Royal Academicians they had ap- 
 plied to for the decoration of their Great 
 Room, was now willing to take the whole 
 upon himfelf, and to execute it upon a 
 much larger and more comprehenfive 
 plan ; this was affented to by the Society ; 
 and the next night Mr. Green delivered 
 the following letter from me. 
 
 S I R, 
 
 The propofal for decorating the Great 
 Room of the Society of Arts, &c. with 
 Paintings analogous to the views of that 
 inftitution, and declared to that Society, 
 on Wednefday, the 5th of March, by 
 Mr. Val. Green, member of the fame. 
 
 o 
 
( 2I 7 ) 
 
 on condition the faid Society provided the 
 
 artift with canvafs, colours* and models, 
 proper to carry it into execution ; the 
 faid propofal was made to the Society as 
 above, by the defire and confent of 
 
 JAMES BARRY, 
 
 Suffolk Street , Jday Market , 
 
 March 6 , 1777 . 
 
 To the Chairman of the Committee of 
 Polite Arts . 
 
 The Society agreed, the work was car- 
 ried on, and the whole of what I have 
 received from time to time, for models 
 and other fimilar matters, has amounted 
 to forty five pounds; this was the only 
 fxpenditure of the Society, in which I 
 
 wiChed 
 
( 2l3 ) 
 
 wiffied to have any concern ; and it was 
 with much difficulty I could prevail with 
 their Secretary More, to fuffer me to have 
 the difcretionary difpofal even of this $ 
 to meet with fuch an infult (or what fhall 
 I call it) and fo early in the work, had 
 well nigh tempted me to throw up the 
 whole bufinefs in difguft ; but on enquiry 
 I found it arofe altogether from the Secre- 
 tary himfelf, without his receiving any 
 order from the Society, for fo uncivil, ab~ 
 furd, and indelicate an interference; how- 
 ever, as the man could have no ground of 
 quarrel or diflike to me (as we were almoft 
 utter Grangers to each other) I thought it 
 heft to pafs it over, and to have as little 
 intercourfe with him in future as poffi- 
 ble, lince; as he appeared neither foolifh 
 or ill-bred, I could not help regarding 
 him as inftigated to this, by fome of my 
 left-handed friends, whom he might think 
 it eligible to oblige, and who were as in*** 
 different about the intereft or wiffies of 
 
 the 
 
( 219 ) 
 
 the Society, as they were eager and in- 
 duftrious to embarr^fs me but a (haft 
 from the old quiver, I coniidered as a thing 
 of courfe. 
 
 As 1 intended to take up the work upon 
 a plan much more extenlive and laborious, 
 one of my pictures being almoft equal to 
 all that had been originally propofed, and 
 that I had to do with a Soeiety founded 
 upon the exprefs idea of the Encourage- 
 ment of Arts, with fuch a Frelident as 
 that beft of men Lord Romney ; and fuch 
 Vice Prefidents as the Dukes of Richmond 
 and Northumberland, the Earls of Har- 
 court, Radnor, and Percy, the Honour- 
 able Charles Marfham, Sir George Saville, 
 Bart. Sir Charles Whitworth, Edward 
 Hooper, Owen Salifbury Brereton, and 
 Keane Fitzgerald, Efqrs; and compofed 
 of fuch members, as Dukes, MarquifTes, 
 Lords, and a long lift of the moft ho- 
 nourable and refpedtable names, exhibited 
 t© the world in the printed book of the 
 
 Soci- 
 
( 220 ) 
 
 Society. In a tranfaftion with fuch cha- 
 racters asthefe, I felt my mind perfectly 
 at eafe* and fecured againft all contingent 
 cies : if I Should die in the courfe of the 
 work* the colourman would be provided for,, 
 and I Should at leaft have the reputation of 
 falling as became a man, in the mo ft ho- 
 nourable effort my vocation could poffibly 
 admit of $ but if matters took a happier 
 turn* and that this laborious work fhould 
 be carried through* I concluded that as 
 the ideas of fitnefs and propriety have a 
 refpedlable liability with men of honour 
 and probity* and that if at one time they 
 think it juft to contrive and to hold forth 
 fame compenfation, as the flender reward 
 of a certain portion of time and trouble* 
 that a fortiori, the fame ideas of propriety* 
 £tnef$* andjuftice* will not be wanting* 
 when this time and trouble is enqreafed 
 four-fold ; and therefore “ That Exhi- 
 ** bition propofed in their New Room* 
 ** for a time not exceeding four months* 
 
 in 
 
( 221 ) 
 
 ** In feme meafure to indemnify for time 
 “ and trouble” I confidered at leaf: as a 
 thing of courfe* about which it would 
 have been both indelicate and idle to 
 ftipulate* 
 
 m 
 

 stii