It has been often aO.erted, and has been long implicitly- 

 believed, that nothing but religious zeal, and the wealth 

 accumulated by the clergy in Roman Catholic countries, 

 could afford sufficient encouragement for calling forth the 

 exertions of men of genius in the fine arts. The time 

 seems to approach when experience will give the lie to 

 this hypothesis, as it has done already to many others. 

 Before the art of printing was discovered, rich men, 

 alone, could become the patrons of men of genius j but 

 now the general diffusion of knowledge by printing and en- 

 graving, combined with the general diffusion of wealth by 

 means of manufactures and trade, afford a public patron- 

 age, that seems to be capable of liberally compensating 

 the most eminent artists for the highest exertions of ge- 

 nius. The effects of this mode of encouragement seem 

 to be wonderful, if we are to judge from the rapidity of 

 the progrefs of enterprizes of this kind since it was first 

 begun. 



BoydeW's views on the Thames, Forth, Clyde, and Severn. 

 This is another attempt of the same nature with those 

 above named. The unfortunate Mr John Knox first set 

 this undertaking a-foot •, but for want of funds it proved 

 in his hands abortive. Since his death the drawings that 

 were made for his intended work h;ving been sold, ano- 

 tlier bookseller attempted to carry his plan into effect^ 



