they have Imagin❜d what is done in Heaven, Earth, and Hell, as well as on this Globe, and which could never be known Historically; their very Language, as well as their Measures, and Rhimes must be above what is in Common use. The Opera has carried this matter Still farther, but fo far as that being beyond Probability it touches not as Tragedy does, it ceases to be Poetry, and degenerates into mere Shew, and Sound; if the Paffions are affected 'tis from Thence, tho' the Words were not only heard diftinctly, but understood. (By the way) let it be confider'd in This Light, Let the Opera be confider'd as Shew, and Musick, One of the Inftruments being a Humane Voice, the Common Objection to its being in an Unknown Tongue falls to the Ground.

As the Poets, fo the Painters have ftor'd our Imaginations with Beings,

Beings, and Actions that never were; they have given us the Finest Natural, and Historical Images, and that for the fame End, to Please, whilst they Inftruct, and make men Better. I am not difpos'd to

carry on the Parallel, by defcending to Particulars, nor is it my Prefent business: Mr. Dryden has done it, tho' it were to be wifh'd he had been in lefs Hafte, and had understood Painting better when his Fine Pen was so employ'd.

Sculpture carries us yet farther than Poetry, and gives us Ideas that no Words can: Such Forms of things, fuch Airs of Heads, fuch Expreffions of the Paffions that cannot be defcrib'd by Language.

It has been much disputed which is the most Excellent of the two Arts, Sculpture, or Painting, and there is a Story of its having been left to the determination of a Blind man, who gave it in favour of the Lat

ter

ter, being told that what by Feeling feem'd to him to be Flat, appear'd to the Eye as Round as its Competitor. I am not fatisfy'd with This way of deciding the Controverfy. For 'tis not the Difficulty of an Art that makes it preferable, but the Ends propos'd to be ferv'd by it, and the Degree in which it does That, and then the Lefs Difficulty the Better.

Now the great Ends of both these Arts is to give Pleasure, and to convey Ideas, and that of the two which beft answers Those Ends is undoubtedly preferable; And that this is Painting is Evident, fince it gives us as great a degree of Pleafure, and all the Ideas that Sculpture can, with the Addition of Others; and this not only by the help of her Colours; but because fhe can express many things which Brafs, Marble, or other Materials of that Art cannot, or are not fo Proper

for.

for. A Statue indeed is feen all round, and this is one great Advantage which 'tis pretended Sculpture has, but without reafon: If the Figure is Seen on every Side, 'tis Wrought on every Side, 'tis then as fo many feveral Pictures, and a hundred Views of a Figure may be Painted in the time that that Figure is cut in Marble, or caft in Brass.

As the business of Painting is to Raife, and Improve Nature, it anfwers to Poetry; (tho' upon Occafion it can also be Strictly Hiftorical) And as it ferves to the Other, more Noble End, this Hieroglyphic Language completes what Words, or Writing began, and Sculpture carried on, and Thus perfects all that Humane Nature is capable of in the communication of Ideas 'till we arrive to a more Angelical, and Spiritual State in another World. I believe it will not be unacceptD able

able to my Readers if I illustrate what I have been saying by Examples, and the rather because they are very Curious, and very little Known.

Villani in his Florentine History lib. 7. cap. 120, 127. fays, that Anno 1288 there were great divifions in the City of Pifa upon account of the Soveraignty; One of the Parties was headed by the Judge Nino di Gallura de 'Vifconti; the Chief of Another Party was Count Ugolino de 'Gherardefchi; and the Archbishop Ruggieri of the Family of the Ubaldini was at the head of the Third Party, in which were alfo the Lanfranchi, the Sigifmondi, the Gualandi, and others; the two first of these Parties were Guelfs, the other Ghibellines, (Factions that at that time, and for many years before, and after made difmal havock in Italy.) Count Ugolino to get the Power into his Own hands, caball'd