A P P E N D I X. ... 161 

 ter all, it is a good Thing to laugh at any rate; and if a ftraw 

 can tickle a man, it is an inftrument of happinefs. Beads 

 can weep when they fuffer, but they cannot laugh : And, as 

 Sir William Davenant obferves, in his Preface to Gondibert, 

 :( It is the wifdom of a government to permit Plays," (he 

 might have added Farces) " as it is the prudence of a carter 

 to put bells upon his horfes to make them carry their burdens 

 chearfully." 



I have already (hewn, that one main end of Poetry and 

 Painting is to pleafe, and have faid fomething of the kinds of 

 both, and of their fubjeds, in which they bear a great refem- 

 blance to each other. I mufb now confider them as they are 

 great and noble Arts ; and as they are arts, they muft have 

 rules which may diredt them to their common end. 



To all Arts and Sciences, but more particularly to thefe, 

 may be applied what Hippocrates fays of Phyfic, as I find 

 him cited by an eminent French critic. " Medicine has long 

 fubfifled in the world ; the principles of it are certain, and 

 it has a certain way ; by both which there has been found, in 

 the courfe of many ages, an infinite number of things, the 

 experience of which has confirmed its ufefulnefs and goodnefs. 

 All that is wanting to the perfection of this art, will undoubt- 

 edly be found, if able men, and fuch as are inftrudted in the 

 antient rules, will make a farther inquiry into it, and endea- 

 vour to arrive at that which is hitherto unknown by that 

 which is already known. But all, who having rejected the 

 antient rules, and taken the oppofite ways, yet boafl themfelves 

 to be Matters of this Art, do but deceive others, and arc 

 themfelves deceived ; for that is abfolutely impoflible." 



This is notorioufly true in thefe two Arts ; for the way 

 to pleafe being to imitate Nature, both the Poets and the 

 Painters in antient times, and in the beft ages, have ftudied 



X her ; 



