Mr. D R Y D E N's 



PREFACE, 



WITH A PARALLEL OF 

 POETRY and PAINTING. 



IT may be reafonably expected, that I mould fay fomething 

 on my behalf, in refpect to my prefent undertaking. Firft 

 then, the Reader may be pleafed to know, that it was not of 

 my own choice that I undertook this work. Many of our 

 moft fkilful Painters, and other Artifts, were pleafed to re- 

 commend this Author to me, as one who perfectly underftood 

 the rules of Painting ; who gave the bed and moft concife in- 

 ftructions for performance, and the furefl to inform the judg- 

 ment of all who loved this noble Art; that they who before 

 were rather fond of it, than knowingly admired it, might de- 

 fend their inclination by their reafon > that they might under- 

 hand thofe excellencies which, they blindly valued,, fo as not 

 to be farther impofed on by bad pieces, and. to- know when 

 Nature was well imitated by the mofb able Mailers. It is 

 true indeed, and they acknowledge it, that, befides the rules 

 which are given in this Tr-eatife,, or which can be given in any 

 other, to make a perfect judgment of good pictures, and to 

 value them more or lefs,. when compared with one another, 

 there is farther required a long converfation with thebeft pieces, 

 \vhich are not very frequent either in r ranee or England : yet 

 fome we have, not only from the hands of Holbein,, Rubens, 

 and Vandyke, (one of them admirable for HiAory- pain ting, 

 and the other two for Portraits) but of many Fiemim Matters,, 

 and thcfe not iuconiiderable, though for deilgn not equal, to 



the 



