I have been fhewing how Beneficial the Art of Painting is, and how much More it Might be made to the Publick in the Reformation of our Manners, Improvement of our People, and Increase of our Wealth, all which would bring a proportionable Addition of Honour, and Power to this Brave Nation; And I have fhewn that for a Gentleman to become a Lover of the Art, and a Connoiffeur is the Means to attain this End: This alone if there was no other Argument would prove it to be worthy of Such a one to turn his Thoughts This way.

Here being a full Period, and the first Opportunity I have had, I will inform the Publick that I have at length found a Name for the Science of a Con

a Connoiffeur of which I am treating, and which I obferved at the entrance of this Subject wanted One. After fome of these Sheets were printed I was complaining of this Defect to a Friend, who I knew, and Every Body will readily acknowledge was very proper to be advifed with on This, or a Much Greater Occasion; and the next Day had the honour of a Letter from him on another Af fair, wherein however the Term CONNOISSANCE Was us'd; This I immediately found was That he recom

mended,

1

mended, and which I fhall use hereafter. And indeed fince the Term Connoiffeur, tho' it has a General Signification, has been received as denoting One skilful in this particularScience;there can be no reason why the Science it self should not be called Connoiffance. Perhaps 'tis not without fomeMixture of Vanity in my self, but in Justice to my Friend I must not conceal his Name; 'tis Mr. PRIOR.

I will now go on with my Dif

courfe.

There are Few that pretend to be Connoiffeurs, and of thofe Few

the

the number of Such as Deferve to be so call'd is very Small : 'Tis not enough to be an Ingenious Man in General, nor to have feen all the Finest things in Europe, nor even to be able to Make a good Picture, Much less the having the Names, and fomething of the Hiftory of the Masters: All This will not make a Man a good Connoiffeur, To be able to judge of the Goodness of a Picture, most of those Qualifications are neceffary, which the Painter himself ought to be poffeffed of, That is, all that are not Practical; He must be Master of the Subject, and if it be Improveable he must know it is fo, and Wherein; He must not only fee, and Judge of the Thought of the Painter in what he Has done, but must know moreover what he ought to have done, He must be acquainted with the Paffions, their Nature, and how they appear on all Occafions. He must

I

must have a Delicacy of Eye to judge of Harmony, and Proportion, of Beauty of Colours, and Accuracy of Hand; and Laftly he must be converfant with the Better Sort of People, and with the Antique, or he will not be a good Judge of Grace, and Greatnefs. To be a good Connoiffeur (I observ'd heretofore) a Man must be as free from all kinds of Prejudice as poffible; He must moreover have a Clear, and Exact way of Thinking, and Reafoning; he must know how to take in, and manage just Ideas; and Throughout he must have not only a Solid, but an Unbiass'd Judgment. These are the Qualifications of a Connoiffeur; And are not These, and the Exercise of Them, well becoming a Gentleman?

The Knowledge of History has ever been esteem'd to be fo. And this is abfolutely neceffary to a Connoisseur, not That only which may

enable