choice of this rather than that, deftroyed that feeming indifference; this was what my eye firft ftruck upon, was readieft to my hand, &c. If there are a thoufand circumftances relating to two things, and they agree exactly in all but one of them; this gives us two as diftinct ideas as of any two things in the univerfe. And if we carefully obferve it we shall find fone fuch diftinguishing circumftances in every action we do, which determines us to the doing of that rather than fome other, how indifferent foever it may feem to be which of them we do. There is the fame difference between the demonftration Mr. Lock* gives us (as fuch) of the being of a God, and a real demonftration, as between a copy, and an original; or between the hand of Michelangelo, and that of Baccio Bandinelli; that is, it resembles fuch a one, but is not it: it is not an abfolute demonstration, as we had reafon to expect, it is only hypothetical. I remember I was much furprised when I found this after the great expectation he had raised in me: I gave it my fon (who was then about twelve or thirteen years old)-My dear, read this, and give me your opinion of ithe came to me again in a quarter of an hour, and faid; fuppofing the world to have been created in time this is a demonftration, otherwife it is not and he judged right. Mr. Lock fhould firft of all have demonftrated that great point of the birth of the world, till that was done he was in the cafe of Archimedes, he wanted ground to plant his engine upon. 3. A good connoiffeur will take care not to make a difference where there is none, and fo attribute thofe works to two several mafters which were both done by the fame hand, or call that a copy which is truly an original. Errors of this kind are common in other fciences as well as in this. * Effay of Human Understanding, book 4. chap. 10. 4. Con 4. Connoiffeurs having fixed their ideas fhould keep clofe to them, and not flutter about in confufion from one to another, and should affent according to the evidence they have. Every one will readily agree that our affent, and diffent fhould be proportionable to the appearance the evidence has to us; this being certainly the idea of evidence. A DIS A DISCOURSE ΟΝ ΤΗ Ε Dignity, Certainty, Pleafure, and Advantage O F The SCIENCE of a CONNOISSEUR. Ir is is remarkable that in a country as ours, rich, and abounding with gentlemen of a juft, and delicate tafte in mufic, poetry, and all kinds of literature: fuch fine writers! fuch folid reafoners! fuch able statesmen! gallant foldiers! excellent divines, lawyers, phyficians, mathematicians, and mechanicks! and yet so few! so very few lovers, and connoiffeurs in Painting! In most of these particulars there is no nation under Heaven which we do not excel; in fome of the principal moft of them are barbarous compared with us; fince the beft times of the ancient Greeks and Romans when this art was in its greatest efteem, and perfection, fuch a national magnanimity as feems to be the characteristic of our nation has been loft in the world; and yet the love, and knowledge of Painting, and what has relation to it bears no proportion to what is to be found not only in Italy, where they are all lovers, and almost all connoiffeurs, but in France, Holland, and Flanders. Every Every event in the natural, and moral world has its caufes, which are caused by other caufes, and fo on up to the firft caufe, the immutable, and unerring will, without which not fo inconfiderable an accident (as it will be called) as the falling of a fparrow, or the change of the colour of a fingle hair can happen; fo that there is nothing ftrange: what is commonly the fubject of admiration is fo for no other reafon but that we do not fee its caufes, nor remember it muft needs have had fuch, and which muft as infallibly operate in that manner as thofe we fee, and which are moft ordinary, and familiar to us. We are apt to wonder (for example) that such a man got fuch an eftate, or that another had fo little, whereas did we fee all the caufes we fhould fee it could not have been otherwife: there goes a great many of these to the producing fuch an event, I mean those that may be faid to ftand in front, and not in depth, thofe that are concomitant, fuch as the man's opportunities, humour, a certain mixture of abilities; he may be well qualified in fome refpects, deficient in others, and abundance of other circumftances always operating at the fame inftant, I fay I mean these, and not their causes, and the caufes of thofe caufes, and fo on: and these being known, and weighed, the wonder ceases; it must needs have happened thus: the Mercury in the tube will rife and fall juft as the compofition of the atmosphere happens to be. That fo few here in England have confidered that to be a good connoiffeur is fit to be part of the education of a gentleman, that there are fo few lovers of Painting; not merely for furniture, or for oftentation, or as it reprefents their friends, or themfelves; but as it is an art capable of en-tertaining, and adorning their minds as much as, nay perhaps more than any other whatfoever; this event alfo has its caufes, to remove which, and confequently their effects, and to procure the contrary good is what I am about to endeavour, and hope in fome meafure to accomplish. Nor is this a trivial undertaking; I have already been giving the principles of it, and here I recommend a New Science to the world, or one at leaft little known, or confidered as fuch: fo new, or fo little known that it is yet without a name; it may have one in time, till then I muft be excufed when I call it as I do, the Science of a Connoiffeur for want of a better way of expreffing myself: I open to gentlemen a new fcene of pleasure, a new innocent amusement and an accomplishment which they have yet fcarce heard of, but no lefs worthy of their attention than most of those they have been accustomed to acquire. I offer to my country a scheme by which its reputation, riches, virtue, and power may be increased. And this I will do (by the help of God) not as an orator, or as an advocate, but as a ftrict reafoner, and fo as I am verily perfuaded will be to the conviction of every one that will impartially attend to the argument, and not be prejudiced by the novelty of it, or their own former fentiments. My prefent bufinefs then in fhort is to endeavour to perfuade our nobility, and gentry to become lovers of Painting, and connoiffeurs; which I crave leave to do (with all humility) by fhewing the dignity, certainty, pleasure, and advantages of that science. One of the principal caufes of the general neglect of the science I am treating of I take to be, that very few gentlemen have a juft idea of Painting; it is commonly taken to be an art whereby nature is to be reprefented, a fine piece of workmanship, and difficult to be performed, but produces only pleasant ornaments, mere fuperfluities. This being all they expect from it no wonder they look no farther; and not having applied themfelves to things of this nature, overlook beauties which they do not hope to find; fo that many an excellent picture is paffed over, and difregarded, and an indifferent or a bad one admired, and that upon low, and even trivial confiderations; from whence arifes naturally an indifference, if not a contempt for the |