DIALOGUE II.

Of our Capacity to judge of PAINTING.

[c] THE

HE learned, fays Quintilian, know the principles of an art, the illiterate its effects. He has, in those words, fixed the boundaries between tafte and fcience. Were I to define the former, I fhould fay, [d] that tafte was a facility in the mind

[c] Docti rationem artis intelligunt, indocti voiuptatem. Lib. ix.

4.

[d] Many writers have oppofed judgment to taste, as if they were diftinct faculties of the mind; but this must be a mistake: The fource of taste is feeling, fo is it of judgment, which is nothing more than this fame fenfibility, improved by the study of its proper objects, and brought to a just point of certainty and correctness. Thus it is clear, that these are but different degrees of the fame faculty, and that they are exercised wholly on our own ideas; but, fcience is the remembrance or affemblage of the ideas of others;

to

to be moved by what is excellent in an art; it is a feeling of the truth. But, science is to be informed of that truth, and of the means by which its effects are produced. It is easy to conceive, that, different as these principles may be in their fetting out, they must often unite in their decifions: This agreement will occafion their being mistaken one for the other, which is the cafe, when it is affirmed, that no one but an artist can form a right judgment of sculpture or painting. This maxim may hold indeed with respect to the mechanick of an art, but not at all as to its effects; the evidence and force of which, are what determine both the value of the art, and merit of the artist. What [e] Tully obferves of an excellent

and hence it sometimes happens, that men the moft remarkable for this kind of knowledge, are not equally fo, for their fenfibility.

[e] Id enim ipfum eft fummi oratoris, fummum eratorem populo videri. In Bruto.

orator,

orator, may as juftly be faid of an excellent painter; his fuperiority will be evident even to the leaft intelligent judges. But neither authority nor argument give a weight to our opinions, touching any art we treat of, equal to the illustrations and examples which they lend each other. Happily, [f] the near affinity that is obferved between the polite arts, they being indeed all but different means of addreffing the fame paffions, makes this, at once, the most effectual and ready method of conveying our ideas. I find in Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus an obfervation on mufick much to my purpose. [g] "I ૬ ]

[ƒ] Omnes artes, quæ ad humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam commune vinculum, et quafi cognatione inter fe continentur. Cic. pro Archia

poëta.

[3] Εγωγε και εν τοις πολυανθρωποτάτοις θεάτροις, ο συμπληροι παντοδαπος και αμεσος όχλος, εδοξα καλαμαθείν, ὡς φυσικη τις εσιν απαίων ἡμων οικειόλης προς ευμελειαν τε και ευρυθμίαν Κιθαρισην τε αγαθον σφόδρα ευδοκιμηνία ίδω

"have learned," fays he, “in theatres fill"ed with a promifcuous and illiterate

crowd, what a kind of natural corref"pondence we all have with melody, "and the agreement of founds: Having "known the most admired and able mu"fician to be hiffed by the whole multi

tude, when he has ftruck a fingle ftring "out of tune, to the difturbance of har

mony; yet, put this fame inftrument "into the hands of one of thofe fimple"tons, with orders to exprefs that note, "which he would exact from the artist, " he cannot do it. Whence is this? The "one is the effect of fcience, the lot but "of a few; the other of feeling, which

θορυβηθεία ύπο τις πληθές, ότι μια χορδην ασύμφωνον εκρεσε, και έφθειρε το μελος καιτοι ειτις κελεύσεις τον ιδιωτην τέτων τι ὧν ενεκαλει τοις τεχνίταις ὡς ἡμαρτημένων, αυτον ποιησαι λαβονα τα οργανα, εκ αν δυναίλο. τι δη ποτε; ότι τέτο μεν επίσημης εξιν, ἧς 8 παντες μετειληφαμεν εκείνο δε παθες, ὁ πασιν απέδωκεν ἡ φύσις. Dion. Halicarn. De fruct. orat. fect. xi.

<< nature

"nature has bestowed on all." This applies itself to our present subject: The eye has its principle of correfpondence with what is juft, beautiful, and elegant: It acquires, like the ear, an [b] habitual delicacy; and answers, with the fame fidelity and precifion, to the finest impreffions: Verfed in the works of the best painters, it foon learns to diftinguish true expreffions from falfe, and grace from affectation; quickened by exercise, and confirmed by comparison, it outstrips reafoning; and feels in an inftant that truth, which the other developes by degrees.

B. You have been describing, what Tully calls a learned, and we, I think, may term a chafte eye.

in this process, make the

But, do you not, growth of taste

[6] Confuetudo oculorum, Cic. lib. iv. Acad.

quat.

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