APPENDIX. 151 



midft of filerice to contemplate thofe ideas which I have only 

 fketched, and which every man muft finifli for himfelf." 



In thefe pompous expreffions, or fuch as thefe, the Italian 

 has given you his idea of a Painter; and tho' I cannot mucli 

 commend the ftile, I muft needs fay, there is fomewhat in 

 the matter : Plato himfelf is accuftomed to write loftily, imi- 

 tating, as the critics tell us, the manner of Homer; but, 

 furely, that inimitable Poet had not fo much of fmoke in his 

 writings, though not lefs of fire. But in fhcrt, this is the 

 prefent genius of Italy. What Philoftratus tells us, in the 

 proem of his Figures, is- fomewhat plainer, and therefore I will 

 tranflate it almoft word for word : " He who will rightly 

 govern the Art of Painting, ought, of necefiity, firft to under- 

 hand human Nature. He ought likewife to be endued with a 

 genius, to exprefs the figns of their paflions whom he rep re- 

 fents, and to make the dumb as it were to fpeak : He mud 

 yet farther understand what is contained in the conftitution of 

 the cheeks, in the temperament of the eyes, in the naturalnefs 

 (if I may fo call it) of the eye- brows ; and in (hort, whatfo- 

 cver belongs to the mind and thought. He who thoroughly 

 poflefles all thefe things, will obtain, the whole, and the hand 

 will exquiiitely reprefent the action of every particular perfon; 

 if it happens that he be either mad or angry, melancholic or 

 chearful, a fprightly youth, or a languishing lover : in one 

 word, he will be able to paint whatfoever is proportionable to 

 any one. And even in all this there is a fweet error without 

 caufmg any (ha me : For the eyes and mind of the beholders 

 being fattened on objects which have no real being, as if they 

 were truly exiftent, and being induced by them to believe 

 them fo, what pleafure is it not capable of giving ? The an- 

 tients, and other wife men, have written many things concern- 

 ing the fymmetry, which is in the Art of Painting; conflic- 

 ting 



