YOUR letter

OUR letter found me juft upon my return from an excurfion into Berkshire, where I had been paying a vifit to a friend, who is drinking the waters at Sunning-hill. In one of my morning rides over that delightful country, I accidentally paffed thro' a little village, which afforded me much agreeable meditation; as in times to come, perhaps, it will be vifited by the lovers of the polite arts, with as much veneration as Virgil's tomb, or any other celebrated fpot of antiquity. The place I mean is Binfield, where the poet to whom I am indebted (in common with every reader of tafte) for fo much exquifite entertainment, fpent the earlieft part of his youth. I will not fcruple to confefs that I looked upon the fcene where he planned fome of thofe beautiful performances which first recommended him to the notice of the world, with a degree of enthufiafin: and could not but confider the ground as facred that was impreffed

T 3

preffed with the footsteps of a genius that undoubtedly does the highest honor to our age and nation.

THE fituation of mind in which I found myself upon this occasion, suggested to my remembrance a paffage in Tully, which I thought I never fo thoroughly entered into the spirit of before. That noble author, in one of his philofophical conversation-pieces, introduces his friend Atticus as obferving the pleasing effect which scenes of this nature are wont to have upon one's mind: Movemur enim (fays that polite Roman) nefcio quo pacto, locis ipfis, in quibus eorum, quos diligimus aut admiramur, adfunt veftigia, Me quidem ipfæ illæ noftræ Athena, non tam operibus magnificis exquifitifque antiquorum artibus delectant, quam recordatione fummorum virorum, ubi quifque habitare, ubi federe, ubi difputare fit folitus.

THUS, you fee, I could defend myself by an example of great authority, were I in danger upon this occafion of being ridiculed as a romantic vifionary. But I am too well acquainted with the refined fentiments of Orontes, to be under any apprehenfion he will condemn the impreffions I have

here

here acknowledged. On the contrary, I have often heard mention with appro

you

bation a circumftance of this kind which is related of Silius Italicus. The annual ceremonies which that poet performed at Virgil's fepulchre, gave you a more favorable opinion of his taste, you confessed, than any thing in his works was able to raise.

IT is certain that fome of the greatest names of antiquity have distinguished themfelves by the high reverence they fhewed to the poetical character. Scipio, you may remember, defired to be laid in the fame tomb with Ennius; and I am inclined to pardon that fuccefsful madman Alexander, many of his extravagancies, for the generous regard he paid to the memory of Pindar, at the facking of Thebes.

THERE feems, indeed, to be fomething in poetry, that raifes the poffeffors of that very fingular talent, far higher in the estimation of the world in general, than those who excel in any other of the refined arts. And accordingly we find that poets have been distinguished by antiquity with the most remarkable honors. Thus Homer, we are told, was deified at Smyrna; as the T 4 citizens

rib

citizens of Mitylene ftamped the image of Sappho upon their public coin. Anacreon received a folemn invitation to spend his days at Athens; and Hipparchus, the son of Piliftratus, fitted out a fplendid veffel in order to transport him thither; and when Virgil came into the theatre at Rome, the whole audience rofe up and faluted him with the same respect as they would have paid to Auguftus himself.

PAINTING, one should imagine, has the faireft pretenfions of rivaling her sister-art in the number of admirers; and yet, where Apelles is mentioned once, Homer is celebrated a thousand times. Nor can this be accounted for by urging that the works of the latter are still extant, while thofe of the former have perished long fince: for is not Milton's paradife loft more universally es teemed than Raphael's cartoons?

The truth, I imagine, is, there are more who are natural judges of the harmony of numbers than of the grace of proportions. One meets but few who have not, in fome degree at least, a tolerable ear: but a judicious eye is a far more uncommon poffefon. For as words are the univerfal me

dium which all men employ in order to convey their fentiments to each other; it feems a just confequence that they should be more generally formed for relishing and judging of performances in that way: whereas the art of representing ideas by means of lines and colors, lies more out of the road of common use, and is therefore lefs adapted to the taste of the general run of mankind.

I HAZARD this observation, in the hope of drawing from you your sentiments upon a subject in which no man is more qualified to decide; as indeed it is to the converfation of Orontes that I am indebted for the difcovery of many refined delicacies in the imitative arts, which, without his judicious affiftance, would have lain concealed to me with other common obfervers.

Adieu.

LETTER