Pe ny EA Ps Ay Ce En 
pace with the advancement of this moft im- 
_ portant difcovery ; and though neceffity was 
the parent of the mechanic arts, yet they alfo 
throve, and grew to maturity, under the fame 
influence. 
Many more inftances might be Added to 
this brief view of the utility of natural know- 
lege; but we fhall only give fome of its ufes 
in the polite arts, which have hitherto been 
too little connected with it. 
To inftance particularly in painting, its ufes 
are very extenfive: the permanency of colors 
depends on the goodnets of the pigments ; 
but the various animal, vegetable, and foflil 
fubftances (out of which they are made) can 
only be known by repeated trials; yet the 
ereateft artifts have failed in this refpe&t: the 
fhadows of the divine Raphael have acquired 
an uniform blacknefs, which obfcures the 
fineft productions of his pencil, while the 
paintings of Holbein, Durer, and the Vi enetian= 
fehool, (who were admirably fkilled in the 
knowlege of pigments) {till exift in their pri- 
mitive frefhnefs. 
But thefe advantages are fmall, compared 
to thofe derived ‘from the knowlege of nature 
in the reprefentation of objets: painting is 
aly 
