ftian can take Pleafure in Connoift fance; but that fuch lamones has a Mind at Eafe, and most apt to receive Virtuous Pleafure is inconteftable: 'Tis then a proper Difpofition to receive That I am about to recommend: Which justifies what I have been doing as to the Attempt, whatever the Performance may be judg'd to be.

!

101

That the Pleasure of Connoiffance is a Virtuous, and a Ufeful one, and fuch a one therefore as is worthy the Pursuit of a Wife, and Good Man appears by what has been faid heretofore. Wherein this Pleasure confifts is what I am Now about/to fhew: Which will alfo ferve as a Specimen of what may be done in other Inftances, a Vaft many of which I have obferv'd are overlook'd and neglected as well as This: 10

2

What is Beautiful, and Excellent is naturally adapted to Pleafe; but Alb Beauties, and Excellencies are asin

not

not naturally Seen. Most Gentles men see Pictures, and Drawings as the Generality of People fee the Heavens in a Clear, Starry Night, they perceive a fort of Beauty there] but fuch a one as produces no great Pleasure in the Mind: But when one confiders the Heavenly Bodies? as other Worlds, and that there are an Infinite Number of thefe in the Empire of God, Immensity; andĮ Worlds which cour. Eyes assisted byi the best Glaffes can never reach, and fo far remote from the most! distant of what we fee (which yerl are fo far removed from us that when we confider it our Minds are fill'd with Astonishment) that These Visible ones are as it were our Neighbours, as the Continent of France is to Great Britain; When one contTM fiders farther, That as there are In-1 habitants on this Continent thot we see them not when we see That, 'tis altogether unreasonable to Imagine that

1

E

that those Innumerable Worlds are Uninhabited, and Defart; there must be Beings There, Some perhaps More, Others Lefs Noble, and Excellent than Man: When one Thus views this Vaft Profpect, the Mind is Otherwife affected than Before, and feels aDelight which Common Notions never can adminifter. So those who at Prefent cannot comprehend there can be fuch Pleasure in a good Picture, or Drawing as Connoiffeurs pretend to find, may Learn to fee the fame thing Them felves, their Eyes being once open'd 'tis like a New Senfe, and New Pleafures flow in as often as the Objects of that Superinduc'd Sight prefent themselves, which (to People of Condition Efpecially) very frequently happens, or may be procur'd, whether Here at Home, or in their Travels Abroad. When a Gentleman has learn'd to see the Beauties and Excellencies that are

really

really in good Pictures, and Drawings, and which may be learnt by converfing with Such, and applying himfelf to the confideration of them, he will look upon That with Joy which he Now paffes over with very little Pleasure, if not with Indifference: Nay a Sketch, a Scrabble of the Hand of a Great Mafter will be capable of administering to him a Greater Degree of Pleasure than those who know it not by Experience will easily believe.

Befides

the Graceful, and Noble Attitudes, the Beauty of Colours, and forms and the fine Effects of Light, and Shadow, which none fees as a Connoisseur does, Such a one enters farther than any other Can into the Beauties of the Invention, Expreffion, and other Parts of the Work he is confidering: He fees Strokes of Art, Contrivances, Expedients, a Delicacy, and Spirit that others fee not, or very Imperfectly.

He

He fees what a Force of Mind the great Masters had to Conceive Ideas; what Judgment to fee things Beautifully, or to Imagine Beauty from what they faw; and what a power their Hands were endued withal in a few Strokes, and with Eafe to fhew to Another what themfelves Conceiv'd.

What is it that gives us Pleasure in Reading a Hiftory, or Poem, but that the Mind is thereby furnish'd with Variety of Images? And what diftinguishes Some Authors, and sets 'em above the Common Le vel but their knowing how to Raife their Subject? The Trojan, or Peloponefian Wars would never have been thought of by Us if a Homer, or a Thucydides had not told the Stories of 'em who knew how to do it fo as to fill the Mind of their Readers with Great, and Delightful Ideas. He who converfes with the Works of the Beft Mafters is