the cultivation of the arts.' If to prefer public right to public wrong is to be a Goth, I should feel more honoured by the title, than Mr. Shee would pleasure in conferring it. But he ought to have known that calling names is not arguing. I am perfectly willing to believe, on his authority, that England has already surpassed all her competitors in art, and I have full confidence in the genius and ambition of our living artists, for the preservation and encrease of the high honours already acquired; I should be most happy to know that their efforts are supported by the most liberal and extensive patronage, and that they themselves receive all the respect and consideration to which their merits entitle them: and if any means could be suggested, other than those proposed, for the accomplishment of the author's utmost wish, so highly do I venerate the arts, and so much respect the professors, I should rejoice to see such means successfully employed. I esteem the arts the ornaments of a state; but ornaments may be purchased too dearly. Public necessity should be satisfied before public luxury; and even then the necessitous cannot in justice be called on to pay their proportion for luxuries which they cannot share. To speak of myself is irksome; but thus much it was necessary to say to avoid misrepresentation, or misconception. And now that this subject, which it was the principal object of Mr. Shee to enforce, has been discussed, perhaps more briefly than might have been done, but for the apprehension of extending this article beyond its proportionate length, I shall not recur to it again in my progress through the ELEMENTS OF ART, though I meet it almost at every step.

In the composition of his work, it has been the author's aim merely, as he informs us, to address himself " to the undisciplined tyro of taste." His instructions are intended for "those "early periods of study, for the direction of which, former "writers, have in a great measure neglected to provide. He "takes up the student in the weak and helpless moments of

"inexperience, when, an infant in the nursery of art, he be "gins to feel his feet, and moves in tottering apprehension: "when all is doubt and indecision-eagerness without object, "and impetuosity without force or direction.-His essay is “intended but as preparatory to a higher course of instruction "as introductory to the study of a Fresnoy, and a Reynolds. "The author considers himself only as the humble usher, to "conduct the student into the presence of those, who are bet❝ter qualified to be the guides of his maturity, and the models "of his imitation."

This is modest enough; but if indeed the author's ambition were no higher, he has gone much beyond the bound he had proposed to himself, Whenever any object has tempted him, he has never hesitated to wander from the main road, without stopping to consider whether his "undisciplined and helpless student" can follow him. But whether on this account his judgment is most to be blamed for elevating his work above the comprehension of those for whom he intended it, or his mo desty for descending from the station to which he has preten sions, must be left to the determination of the reader of his book.

To legislate on subjects of taste, requires no ordinary degree of intelligence and authority. Its principles are so little defined or understood, that no general law is acknowledged, but every school of art is governed by a code of its own. It must be evident to the most common observer, that the prac tice of the Roman, and of the Flemish masters, could not have been founded on the same principles; and that the laws of taste, as interpreted at Venice, did not regulate the practice at Paris. This may partly account for the general imperfection, which the author has noticed, in those works which have been written on painting. He acknowledges, indeed, with a sincerity rather singular in his situation, that, “there is no "department of human knowledge in which so little aid is to be "drawn from theory, or derived from books." But then it

should seem that this assertion is made chiefly for the purpose of excluding from the realms of taste all dilettanti critics, whose opinions he takes every occasion to treat with the utmost contempt; for he adds, that "to the writings of the professor "must the student apply for whatever useful information the "channel of literature is calculated to afford." It might have been doubted, however, whether a strong objection might not justly lie against the professor, on account of the natural prejudice which he must be supposed to have in favour of his own style; but the author has not left this a matter of doubt, for with his usual consistency, he states-

"That an ordinary painter, although a man of sense, and well 66 grounded in the theory of his art, seldom proves a successful "teacher; for what he would establish by his precept he destroys (6 by his example. He will in vain point out to others the road to "excellence, while he himself travels another way. Even a good "painter may be a bad instructor, if his integrity is not equal to his "talents; if he has not as much candour as genius; if he is not "conscious of his defects, and capable of acknowledging them; if ❝he does not, in short, forget himself in his precepts, and sacrifice "his pride to his pupil, and his art.” ELEM. Note, p. 29.

It is true that this passage refers more immediately to the instance of a master giving lessons to his pupil; but that does not materially alter the case; it is admitted that the judgment of the professor is liable to be influenced by his practice. In this difficulty, it is no little merit perhaps in the author to have confined himself so entirely to general precepts, and general remarks on the various style of the different schools of art, that it is not easy to discover which he himself prefers, or which he would advise the student to adopt.

If instruction had been the author's only aim, it is scarcely to be supposed that he would have written in verse, when he might have executed his purpose so much more conveniently and effectually in prose. To dogmatize in verse, and hitch precepts into rhyme, may indeed be more gratifying to the vanity of the preceptor, but yields much less profit to the student. Whether it

was with a view to obviate this objection, that the author overran his pages with the endless dissertations which he has appended to his lines under the denomination of notes, he has not told us, but he has confessed, that they appear rather as principals than appendages; and though he says, that "a little more experi"ence of the press would perhaps have enabled him to com"press his annotative exuberance within the limits of typogra"phic propriety :"-he urges as an excuse, "the advantage of "support and elucidation which the subject may receive from "this kind of running accompaniment." But as his accompaniment completely overpowers his melody, it had better been avoided altogether; or he might have more properly prefixed his notes to his poem in the shape of distinct essays. After all, however, this is a matter little worth disputing about; it is not the first time, as some have observed, that verses have been used as pegs to hang notes upon; but it may be added, that Mr. Shee's verses had need be strong to bear so ponderous a weight. Since they will so readily admit however of being etached from the poem, it may be as well to consider them separately, and after a slight view of their contents to dismiss them.

Among much that is extravagant and paradoxical, these notes contain a very considerable quantity of original and entertaining matter. Wisely determining to think for himself, the author has only adverted to the dogmas of the monarchs of virtù, to expose and ridicule them. To the dilettanti critic he has shewn no mercy, and Winckelman as the head of the sect is the constant butt at which his keenest shafts are aimed. The character which he has drawn of this very learned but fanciful writer, is perhaps rather overcharged with severity, but its spirit is amusing.

"The observations of Winckelman upon every work of taste "which he describes, are in the highest style of that penetrating "class of critics, who unacquainted with the real powers of the art, "about which they treat, are always sure to see much more than "their author intended, or than his work could possibly express.

His admiration delights to dwell in little distinctions, and delicate << discriminations; he loses sight of the leading sentiment, the grand "character which the artist has impressed upon his work, to follow "the refinements of imaginary emotion, in the corner of a mouth, or "the cut of an eye-brow. He gravely parcels out the face like a "map of the passions-finds in every feature a different sentiment, "and thinks, when he has set them all at variance, that he has pro"nounced a panegyric on the whole.

"Criticism in the hands of Winckelman, and those who resemble him, is precisely that which has been so well described by La "Bruyere: "La critique souvent n'est pas une science: c'est un "métier où il faut plus de santé que d'esprit, plus de travail que de "capacité, plus d'habitude que de génie."

"The mortifying deceptions which were passed upon him, for "the purpose of exposing his presumption, had little effect in re 66 pressing it. He was to the last the mighty scholiast of taste,

"Whose front was plough'd with many a deep remark ;' ~~

Pope.

"before whom the artist and the connoisseur were alike dismayed "and discomfited. By the fiat of absolute authority he divided the "whole empire of pirtù, assigning the province of genius to his "friend Mengs the painter, and reserving the department of taste "for himself." ELEM. Note, p. 125.

His observations on the absurd reasoning of those, who violate the rules of perspective, under a fallacious pretext of taste, though fantastically expressed, are strong and just: and he ridicules very successfully the folly which wilfully sacrifices the beauties of propriety with a view—

To snatch a grace beyond the reach of art.'

The passage which concludes his remarks on this subject, affords an admirable specimen of his general style :

"The fearless wing of genius may laudably brush away that cob. "web code of critic legislation, in which pedantry and prejudice "have delighted to entangle the interests of taste, and endeavoured "to tie down the talents of every age to the practice of antiquity. "But we should be careful how we are induced to authorize, un"der any circumstances, a departure from the principles of science, 66 or the precepts of truth; how we are led to tolerate, much less to "applaud an indulgence which militates against the fundamental "laws of natural propriety; in order to invest with all the honours "of admiration those capricious aberrations, those glittering eccen