As for the prefent performance, nobody can be more ready to fay, than I to acknowledge, that it is not fo well as it fhould be: but as in drawings thofe are good that anfwer their end; if no more than the compofition (for example) is pretended to, it is impertinent to fay they are incorrect; here the reader fhould distinguish between the writer, and the painter: my business is Painting: if I have fucceeded tolerably well in that character, the public has no reafon to complain. Such as it is, and fuch as my abilities, and the proportion of time, and application I have thought it reasonable for me to bestow has enabled me to make it, I now offer it to the world, though I was not refolved fo to do when I began to write. I remember to have heard a ftory which (like others told on fuch occafions) is not to be too ftrictly applied, however the reader may do as he thinks fit. A man of quality, Sir Peter Lely's intimate friend, was pleafed to fay to him one day, for God's fake, Sir Peter, how came you to have fo great a reputation? you know I know you are no painter.My Lord, I know I am not, but I am the best you have.

THE

I. Of the Goodness of a Picture;
II. Of the Hand of the Mafter; and

III. Whether it is an Original, or a Copy.

ON THE ART OF

CRITICISM,

&c.

I

HAVE been often afked how we know the hands of the feveral mafters, and diftinguifh copies from originals; and was perfuaded, a fatisfactory answer to thefe queftions would be very acceptable to moft gentlemen, as well as to thofe particular enquirers; to gratify the public therefore, together with fuch of my own friends, I was determined to take this way of anfwering them all at once, and that more fully, and accurately than could poffibly have been done offhand, and in the time I could have bestowed in making particular answers; this moreover, together with what else I fhall add in this discourse, I saw would compleat what I had to offer on the fubje& I had already given the world fome of my thoughts upon.

I will only plead one piece of merit, which I pretend to have with the public, and that is, that I have made a new acquifition for the commonwealth of letters; I believe this is the only book extant upon the fubject. Apelles wrote many volumes upon Painting, perhaps among them fomething might be faid on the knowledge of hands, and how to diftinguith copies from originals,

but

but these have long ago had the fate of all things not immortal. Father Orlandi, in his Abcedario Pittorico, printed at Bologna 1704, has given us a catalogue of about one hundred and fifty books. relating to Painting in feveral languages, but none that I can find treats of this science. M. de Piles (to whom we are obliged for fome curious, and useful hints he has furnished us with in his several works) is the only one I know of that has fo much as entered upon this matter, he has a flight fketch of fome common, and obvious thoughts, and very little more. Whether the fubject is worthy of a more elaborate effay the reader will judge for himself; it is evident I thought it was, and I flatter myself it will appear it was not without reafon; and as many gentlemen pique themselves of having fome fhare of this kind of knowledge, and value themselves upon it; that is, as many as pretend to judge of what hand a picture is, or that it is an original, or not, one muft fuppofe that all these think as I do in this particular.

In a word, as this is the only book extant on the fubject, in any language that I know of, and the laft that I am like to write, I have endeavoured to lay together, in as good a method as I was able, all my thoughts on thefe matters; which, together with what I have done in my former difcourfe, is all that I can recollect as material on the Theory of Painting: and thus to my power I have acquitted myfelf to my country, to the art, and to the lovers of it.

Of the Goodness of a Picture, &c.

WHEREFORE calleft thou me good? there is none good but

one, that is God, faid the Son of God to the young man who prefaced a noble queftion with that compliment. This is that goodness that is perfect, fimple, and properly fo called, it is what is peculiar

to