PAI 



PAI 



tinction are allowed to enter it : the se- 

 cond part is filled with grotesque and 

 monstrous figures, and no boily is allowed 

 to enter it but the bnimius themselves : 

 the third is a kind of chancel, in which 

 the statue of the deity is placed : it is 

 shut up with a very strong 1 gate. This 

 word is sometimes used for the idol, as 

 vveil us for the temple. 



PAGOD, or PA.JODA, is also the name of a 

 gold and silver coin, current in several 

 parts of the East Indies. 



PAIN, is defined to be an uneasy sen- 

 sation arising" from a sudden and violent 

 solution of the continuity, or some other 

 accident in the nerves, membranes, ves- 

 sels, muscles, &c. of the body ; or, accord- 

 ing 1 to some, in consists in a motion of ihe 

 organs of sense ; and according to others, 

 it is an emotion of the soul occasioned by 

 these organs. 



PAINTING. The art of painting may 

 not Improperly be defined, a mode of 

 conveying ideas to the mind by means of 

 a representation of the visible parts of 

 nature. It is a language by which, 

 though all tilings cannot, many at least 

 may be expressed, in a stronger and 

 clearer manner than can be effected by 

 any other; nay, it is, to its extent, a uni- 

 versal language ; though it is only in pro- 

 portion as we are accustomed to read it 

 that we can hope to acquire ideas through 

 its means. 



The particular education of our senses 

 or organs is undoubtedly the only mode 

 by which those senses can be rendered 

 serviceable to us in their full extent ; for 

 although, in their natural and uncultivat- 

 ed state, they are enabled to present us 

 with tolerably clear and distinct ideas 

 of things of a simple kind, or which dif- 

 fer considerably from each other; it is far 

 otherwise when we expect from them 

 just ideas of things complicated, or of 

 such as differ from each other by small, 

 nay almost imperceptible gradations. The 

 untutored eye readily distinguishes black 

 from white, red from blue, and purple 

 from green ; but is unable to detect the 

 delicate transitions from one shade to 

 another of the same colour, and still less 

 the nicer variations of combined and 

 complex colours. 



The quickest of all operations is per- 

 haps that of sight, and in one moment we 

 are enabled to see many objects ; but we 

 cannot, as Leonardo d"a Vinci properly 

 observes, distinguish and understand 

 clearly more than one at a time. Upon 

 the first sight of a page of a written or a 

 printed book, though we observe it to be 



full of words, we do not discorer the 

 sense contained. No ! to understand, 

 we are obliged to read it ; and in case 

 the subject be abtruse, and our compre- 

 hensions dull, it may be necessary to pe- 

 ruse it two or three times before the 

 whole sense be clearly understood by us ; 

 some there may be who never will com- 

 prehend it. The situation of that man 

 who, from long habit, reads with facility 

 and quickness, is likewise far removed 

 from that of the beginner, who having 

 little practice, can only read slowly and 

 with difficulty. 



We have judged it necessary to pre- 

 mise these few observations, in hopes to 

 correct a mistaken but prevalent notion, 

 that although a thorough conversance 

 with painting is required ere a person be 

 adequate to decide discreetly as to the 

 executive parts of a work of art, to dis- 

 tinguish the copy from the original, or 

 the pencils of the different masters ; 

 every man is intuitively enabled to enjoy 

 the effect of the whole, to enter into the 

 expression and feeling of the piece, and, 

 in short, to judge rightly between a bad 

 picture and a good one. Nay, a moment 

 is sufficient for one of these self-dubbed 

 critics to pass an irrevocable sentence on 

 the most extensive and studied composi- 

 tion. 



In treating the subject before us, we 

 shall not by a slow and* tedious process at- 

 tempt to conduct the student of painting 

 through the long and rugged path by 

 which alone even a moderate degree of 

 excellence may be attained ; this would 

 be like commencing a treatise on rheto- 

 ric with the minutiae of orthography and 

 grammar. We shall rather, by a short in- 

 quiry into the fundamental principles of 

 the art, and a reference to the example 

 of the greatest masters, draw his atten- 

 tion to the proper application of that me- 

 chanical skill of which we suppose him 

 already possessed. 



Invention, composition, design, expres- 

 sion, chiara obscura, and colouring, may 

 perhaps not improperly be termed the 

 great component parts "of painting, un- 

 less indeed it be insisted that invention 

 is rather the parent and director of the 

 others to the proper objects of their at- 

 tainment. 



We have defined painting to be a mode 

 of communicating ideas to the mind, by 

 means of a representation of the visible 

 parts of nature ; and we have adopted 

 this mode of expression, because the art 

 can hardly be said to be confined to the 

 mere representation of Tisible objects, 



