Chap, XIL ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 493 



cible and agreeable manner. But it is inferior both to poetry and 

 mufic, in this refped, that there is no fucceflion in it, but it reprefents 

 its objeds all at once ; (o that a piece of painting cannot be of any- 

 great extent or comprehenfion, otherwife the eye could not take it all 

 in, nor could the mind perceive a ivbok in it. 



Of the two lalt arts I fliall mention, the materials are more folid ; 

 for they are Aone, metal, or timber, upon which fculpture operates in 

 flatues, alto, or baflo-relievos, and architecture in elegant and ftately 

 buildings, both arts of great beauty, and the latter, likewife, of great 

 Utility ; but they are confined, like painting, to objedts reprefented 

 all together, and without fucceflion ; and therefore are not capable of 

 the fame extent and comprehenfion as poetry and mufic. 



The works of thefe fine arts are really creations^ by which man 

 imitates the highefl: perfedlion of the Divine Nature, and endeavours 

 to produce a little world, refembling the beauty of the great world 

 of God. As the great gifts of nature are beftowed very fparingly, 

 and but upon very few, it is impoflible that, in any nation, there can 

 be many who excel in this greatefl: perfe<tlion of the human mind, 

 genius. Nay, there appear to be whole nations, who have not at 

 all, in any degree worth obferving, this creative power of genius. 

 Of this kind, is the great nation of the Chinefe, who, though they 

 excel in all mechanic arts, many of which they feem to have invented ; 

 andjtho' they have, or, at leafl:, had the moft exadt internal police that 

 I believe any nation ever had ; yet, in the fine arts, they have made 

 no progreis at all, wanting, as it would feem, thofe ideas of the hauti^ 

 ful d^\^ fuhlime^ which naturally lead men to exprefs them in the dif- 

 ferent ways 1 have mentioned. Their ftatuary, therefore, and fculp- 

 ture are without grace or beauty ; nor is their architedure of any value. 

 Their paintings, and their mufic, have no exprefllon of any thing that 

 is beautiful or fuhlime ; and, in their poetry, which, I believe, is all 

 of the dramatical kind, they fliow that they have not fo much as the 



idea 



