mentators are in a fine fituation! we like the poor mariners with infinite pains, and hazards fetch in from all parts things for use, or delight, they, like the merchants at their eafe receive all from our hands, and fay this is well, or that ill, as their fancy is. For God's fake let us have justice, if we are not allowed indulgence: Let there not be a draw-back upon what is well, and none on what is amifs: either let supposes, and peradventures be equally admitted on both fides; or (which is better) let them be entirely excluded.

To judge of the goodness of a picture, drawing, or print, it is necessary to establish to ourselves a system of rules to be aplied to what we intend to give a judgment of.

Here in order to make this difcourfe as complete as I could I fhould have been obliged to have given fuch a fyftem. But having done that at large in my former effay that affair is over, it is at the reader's fervice, and he may use that, or any other, or one composed out of feveral, with additions, and improvements, or without as he thinks fit: however I will here make him an offer of an abstract of what I take to be thofe by which a painter, or connoiffeur may safely conduct himself, referring to the book itself for further fatisfaction.

I. The fubject must be finely imagined, and if poffible improved in the painter's hands; he muft think well as a historian, poet, philofopher, or divine, and moreover as a painter in making a wife ufe of all the advantages of his art, and finding expedients to fupply its defects.

II. The expreffion must be proper to the fubject, and the characters of the perfons; it must be ftrong, fo that the dumb-fhew may be perfectly well, and readily understood. Every part of the picture muft contribute to this end; colours, animals,

draperies,

draperies, and especially the actions of the figures, and above all the airs of the heads.

III. There must be one principal light, and this, and all the fubordinate ones with the fhadows, and repofes, muft make one, intire, harmonious mafs; the feveral parts must be well connected, and contrafted, so as that the tout-ensemble must be grateful to the eye; as a good piece of mufic is to the ear. By this means the picture is not only more delightful, but better feen, and comprehended.

IV. The drawing must be juft; nothing must be flat, lame, or ill proportioned; and thefe proportions fhould vary according to the characters of the perfons drawn.

V. The colouring whether gay, or solid, must be natural, beautiful, and clean, and what the eye is delighted with, in shadows as well as lights, and middle tints.

VI. And whether the colours are laid on thick, or finely wrought it muft appear to be done by a light, and accurate. hand.

Lafly, Nature must be the foundation, that must be seen at the bottom; but nature must be raised; and improved, not only from what is commonly feen, to what is but rarely, but even yet higher, from a judicious, and beautiful idea in the painter's mind, fo that grace and greatness may fhine throughout; more, or lefs however as the fubject may happen to be. And herein. confifts the principal excellency of a picture, or drawing.

These few plain rules being thoroughly comprehended, and remembered, which may be done with a tolerable measure of good

fenfe,

fenfe, a little trouble in reading, and a good deal of obfervation on nature, and pictures, and drawings of good mafters I will venture to fay are fufficient to qualify a gentleman to be a good judge.

And let me be permitted to fay I advance nothing upon the foot of authority. Whatever authorities there are for any propofition, their value confifts in their being derived from reafon, and they weigh with me in proportion as I fee they do fo; they then become my own, and I have no occafion to produce the author but the reason.

And the matter would terminate here though we had a book of rules for Painting faid to be written by Apelles himself, and it was allowed that what Apelles faid were infallibly true; for then, inftead of faying are thefe rules good, are they founded upon reafon? the question would only be, are they really of him? their authority then will reft, not upon the credit of Apelles, but upon the teftimony of those that say they are his. Which I fhall not want if I find the rules to be good, and if I do not it will be infufficient: and all this without the leaft prejudice to the profound refpect I have for Apelles, nay it is a neceffay confequence of it.

To judge of the degrees of goodnefs of a picture or drawing it is neceffary that the connoiffeur fhould be thoroughly acquainted, and perpetually converfant with the best. For how perfectly foever he may be mafter of the rules of the art he will know that thofe are like what divines call precepts of perfection; that is they are given as what we should endeavour to go by as far as we are able. The best things we know will be the ftandard by which we fhall judge of those and all the reft. Carlo Maratti, and Giuseppe Chiari will be a Rafaclle, and Giulio Romano to him who has never feen better; and then an inferior mafter will make a good Carlo. I have been furprized to obferve what pleafure fome connoiffeurs have taken in what another looked upon with little, if not with contempt, till I

have

have confidered one was not fo well acquainted with the works of the best masters as the other, and that accounts for it sufficiently. All the different degrees of goodnefs in Painting may be reduced to these three general claffes. The mediocre, or indifferently good, the excellent, and the fublime. The first is of a large extent; the fecond much narrower; and the laft ftill more fo. I believe most people have a pretty clear, and just idea of the two former; the other is not fo well understood; which therefore I will define according to the fenfe I have of it; and I take it to confift of fome few of the highest degrees of excellence in those kinds, and parts of Painting which are excellent; the fublime therefore must be marvellous, and furprizing, it must ftrike vehemently upon the mind, and fill, and captivate it irrefiftibly..

As when autumnal rains, or melted Snows
From off the mountains with impetuous hafte
Defcend to feek repofe in lower grounds,
Or in fome neighb'ring river's ouzy bed,
No more the peaceful fiream within its banks
With crooked wandering regularly flows,
But with communicated rage ufurps
Unjuft dominion, and with courfe direct
Defpifing oppofition drives along.

I confine the fublime to hiftory, and portrait Painting; and thefe muft excel in grace, and greatness, invention, or expreffion; and that for reafons which will be feen anon. Michelangelo's great ftyle intitles him to the fublime, not his drawing; it is that greatnefs, and a competent degree of grace, and not his colouring that makes Titian capable of it: As Correggio's grace, with a fufficient mixture of greatness gives this noble quality to his works. Van Dyck's colouring, nor pencil though perfectly fine would never in

troduce

troduce him to the fublime; it is his expreffion, and that grace, and greatness he poffeffed (the utmost that portrait Painting is justly capable of) that fets fome of his works in that exalted clafs; in which on that account he may perhaps take place of Rafaelle himself in that kind of Painting, if that great inan's fine, and noble ideas carried him as much above nature then, as they did in hiftory, where the utmost that can be done is commendable; a due fubordination of characters being preferved; and thus (by the way) Van Dyck's colouring, and pencil may be judged equal to that of Correggio, or any other master.

In writing, the fublime is confiftent with great irregularity; nay that very irregularity may produce that noble effect; as in that wonderful place in Milton.

Headlong themfelves they threw

Down from the verge of Heaven, eternal wrath
Burnt after them to the bottomlefs pit.

The laft bad verfe contributes to the horrible idea which is to be raised here; but if it did not, the thought would be sublime, not the verse so in Painting the fublimity of the thought, or expreffion may be confiftent with bad colouring, or drawing, and these may help to produce that fine effect; if they do not, that will make them overlooked, or even prejudice us in their favour; however it is not thofe defects, but what is excellent that is fublime.

Upon this occafion it is fit to enquire (en paffant) Whether it is our intereft to have fo refined a tafte in general, as to be pleased only with a very few things, and which are rarely to be found, which therefore contracts our enjoyments, whereas it is our business rather to enlarge them. It will be readily fuggelled in anfwer to this, that what is loft upon account of the number of our pleasures, will be gained in the weight of them: the queftion then will be,

whether