EDWARDS'S TREATISE OF PERSPECTIVE. $31 
desires toemulate. What isthe use then 
of science, says the artist, and why should 
J waste my time on the acquisition of 
that which cannot render me an equiva- 
lent return? Thus most of the artists are 
in the situation of a land-surveyor, who 
not long ago was asked what were the 
best books to read to obtain knowledge 
of his art. ‘Chere are none, he replied ; 
the only way to learn it is by becoming 
apprentice: and the good man, on far- 
ther examination, did not really know 
that there had been such a being in na- 
ture as Euclid, though he was then em- 
ployed at a great expence on consider- 
able inclosures. Artists then who catch 
up only the floating ideas of their art, 
must be content to grovel on like the 
land-surveyor: they may produce many 
pleasing effects in the line in which they 
have been brought up, but they cannot 
go beyond their rude instructions; they 
are merely workmen, and must not aspire, 
without msque of exposing themselves, to 
any eminence in their profession. 
On the orher hand, the artist gvho 
could not stir without rule or compass, 
must evidently be ‘as incapable of pro- 
ducing a work of genius. There are li- 
mits of ignorance and exactness, within 
which his sphere of action is confined ; 
and to know them well is a great acquisi- 
tion. Numbers transgress daily the com- 
mon rules of perspective, because they 
have considered them as unnecessary to 
their art, and the first -acquisitionof them 
has appeared difficult. To prescribe the 
reading of Euclid to the young Apelles, 
would appear a task insupportable ; yet 
if an hour of a day for the first year of 
his professional, life, from fifteen to six- 
teen, was employed m this study, he 
would find it a very easy matter, and for 
ever after be sensible of the benefits de- 
rived from this easy study. 
~The author of this work, a very valu- 
able work to every young artist, is ‘sen- 
sible of the propriety ‘of this advice. 
Perspective cannot be understood with- 
out a knowledge of angles, lines, and 
surfaces. He dedicates a few pages. to 
this knowledge ; but the student who 
enters upon the study of the other parts 
of his work, with a complete knowledge 
derived from Euclid’s eleventh book of 
the properties of planes, will. feel no 
embarrassments in understanding every 
principle laid down in the theory. of per- 
spective. They who are content with 
thesruler and the compass, and the: mere 
direction how to use them, feel no confi- 
dehce in a difficult operation, compared 
with those who see the grounds of each 
process, and are able to demonstrate the 
truth of every thing they are about to 
perform. . 
The work is entirely practical, and de- 
rived from the best work written upon 
the subject, which every body knows to 
have proceeded from Dr. Brook Taylor. 
After explaining and defining, in an easy 
manner, the principal terms in the art, it 
lays the basis properly in the elucidation 
of a square and a cube, and thence pro- 
ceeds in an easy and gradual manner — 
through more complicated and dificult . 
figures. The measurements are in ge~ 
neral well laid down, and the young stu- 
dent in the academy who will take his 
rule and compasses, and copy, on a scale 
of his own, every figure in this work, 
which he may, with very little interrup- 
tion. to his other pursuits, perform in the 
course of a couple of years, will find at 
the end of that time that he has obtained 
an accuracy of knowledge of inestimable 
use to him in his future career. 
We. recommend . particularly to his 
attention the discourse at the end of the 
work, a discourse replete with informa- 
tion, and from. which painter, sculptor, 
and. architect may derive much useful 
information, It is singular that the study 
of perspective should be, so much ne- 
glected by. the latter; but there are rea- 
sons in the following extract,.to. convince 
him of his error, in neglecting so impor- 
tant a study. J oe 
«© The architect should always be:po3sessed 
of the sciencé of perspective, and that in no 
trifling degree; for by its assistance he will 
be enabled to determine with himself, and to 
demonstrate to others, the-future eflects of 
his designs and drawings, whenevérbe is em- 
ployed to erect buildings. nt, ee 
“ But the practice of making geometrical 
roahatatuinds. .c5yeo of iO areas 
or orthographical ‘drawings, is by Customs 
firmly established among thearel itects, that 
little hope:can-be enteriained of introduting 
any other mode of drawing their designs, 
Yet, in consequence of this-gencral’practice, 
many able men, have. fouwdtlem se! ves. de- 
ceived when they saw those designs exetut- 
ed ;\wlule their disappointment-was no moze 
than a natural effect of the established prae- 
tice: foriin the orthographi¢al er geometrical 
drawings, all the parts are described equally 
prominent and sible; as,avel! those which 
recede as.those which project; but.in othe 
building, the parts Which recede will appear 
lower than.those which project; they sill 
even be somictines condtaledy if viewed from 
eertain points ; which elféiimstance leads-to 
another ebservarion yp thatswill encoita weawe 
