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their Degrees of Goodness. will add, and as a Philofopher, one fhould only confider the Excellency we fee, and enjoy That, as being, All belonging to it. No more regreting what it has not, or Thinking of it fo as to diminish our Pleasure in that it Has, than we do the want of Tafte in a Rofe, Speech in a Picture of V. Dyck, or Life in one of Raffaelle.

There are two ways whereby a Gentleman may come to be Perfwaded of the Goodness of a Picture, or Drawing; He may neither have Leifure, or Inclination to become a Connoiffeur Himself, and yet may delight in these things, and defire to have them; He has no way then but to take up his Opinions upon Trust, and Implicitly depend upon Another's Judgment. Here his Own is deter

min'd, but upon Arguments in favour of the Honefty, and Underftanding of the Man he Relies upon; not at all relating to the Intrinfick Worth of the thing in Question; And this may be the Wifeft,and Beft Course he can take all things confider'd: Tho' 'tis certain when a Man judges for himfelf he may arrive at a higher Degree of Perfwafion that the Picture, or Drawing is Good; because one Man may be as Good a Judge as Another if he applies himfelf to it; So that here the Gentleman, and his Guide are upon an Equallity; Either indeed may be Mistaken, but he that relies upon the Judgment of Another, has a Double Chance against him Over and above, for he may be mistaken in his Opinion of the Honefty, or Understanding of this Other.

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This way of judging upon the Authority of Another I meddle not with: The first Thing then to be done in Order to become a good Connoiffeur one's Self, is to avoid Prejudices, and falfe ReaJoning.

We must confider ourselves as Rational Beings at large, no matter of what Age, or of what Country, nor even of what Part of the Universe we are Inhabitants, no more than it would be to confider ourselves as of fuch a City, or such a Parish. Opinions taken up early, and from those we have Lov'd, and Honour'd, and which we fee to be Approved, and Applauded by fuch, be their Numbers never fo great must have no Advantage with us upon These accounts. Neither muft our own Paffions, or Intereft be allow'd to give the leaft Byafs to

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our Judgments when we are upon a Rational Enquiry, where all thefe Things are entirely Heterogeneous. A Connoiffeur muft confider the Ancients, the Italians, V. Dyck, Annibale Caracci, Giulio Romano, Michael Angelo, and even the Divine Rafaelle himfelf as Fallible, and examine their Works with the fame unbyafs'd Indifferency, as if he had never heard of fuch Men. Nor must any Thing be taken for granted, We must examine up to first Principles, and go on Step, by Step in all our Deductions, contenting ourfelves with that Degree of Light we can Thus ftrike out, without fancying any Degree of Affent is due to any Propofition beyond what we can fee Evidence for (or what we conceive to be fuch, which is effectively fo, to us) as to give any fuch Affent in Reality

is utterly impoffible: If the Nature of the Thing admits of no Proof we are to give ho Affent. And as Truth is uniform, and evermore confiftent with itself, the Mind Thus finds itself in perfect Serenity; whereas we must be eternally perplex'd, and uneafy if we mix Reason with Prejudice, and when we discover a bright Beam of Truth by Rational Evidence, endeavour to reconcile it with Propofitions taken up in another Manner, if thofe happen to be Erroneous; and still the more, if for the Sake of those unexamin'd Notions we reject what our Reason is otherwife convinc'd of; for this is offering Violence to that Light which we receiv'd from Above, and wherein our Resemblance with the Father of Light consists.

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