Α DISCOURSE ΟΝ ΤΗΕ DIGNITY, &c. 'T IS remarkable that in a Countrey as Ours, Rich, and abounding with Gentlemen of a Juft, and Delicate Tafte, in Musick, Poetry, and all kinds of Literature; Such fine Writers! Such Solid Reafoners! Such Able Statesmen! Gallant Soldiers! Excellent Divines, Lawyers, Phyficians, Mathematicians, and Mechanicks! and yet fo few! fo very A 2 few few Lovers, and Connoiffeurs in Painting! In Most of these particulars there is no Nation under Heaven which we do not excel; In Some of the Principal most of them are Barbarous compar'd with us; Since the Best times of the ancient Greeks and Romans when this Art was in its greatest Esteem,and Perfection, fuch a National Magnanimity as feems to be the Charectaristic 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 Event in the Natural, and Moral World has its Causes, which are caus'd by other Causes, and fo on up to the first Cause, the Immutable, and Unerring Will, with out out which not so Inconfiderable an Accident (as it will be call'd) as the falling of a Sparrow, or the change of the Colour of a Single Hair can happen; So that there is nothing Strange: What is commonly the Subject of Admiration is So for no other reafon but that we don't fee its Causes, nor remember it must needs have had fuch, and which must as Infallibly operate in That manner as those we fee, and which are most Ordinary, and Familiar to us. We are apt to wonder (for example) that Such a Man got Such an Eftate, or that Another had fo Little, whereas did we fee all the Causes we should 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 stand in Front, and not in Depth, Those that are Concomitant, fuch as the Man's Opportunities, Humour, a certain mix ture ture of Abilities; he may be Well qualify'd in Some refpects, Deficient in Others, and abundance of otherCircumstances always operating at the Same Instant, I say I mean Thefe, and not Their Causes, and the Caufes of Those Causes, and fo on: And these being known, and weigh'd, the Wonder ceases; it must needs have happen'd thus: The Mercury in the Tube will Rife and Fall just as the composition of the Atmosphere happens to be. That fo Few here in England have confider'd 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 Represents their Friends, or Themselves; but as it is an Art capable of Entertaining, and Adorning their Minds As much as, nay perhaps More than Any other whatfoever; This Event alfo has its Cau fes, |