viil PREFACE. 
come to what is more particularly the objec 
of our inquiries; animal and vegetable life 
are the eflence of land{cape, and often are fe- 
condary objects i in hiftorical paintings ; even 
the fculptor in his limited province would do 
well to acquire a correctnefs of defign with a 
perfect knowledge of the mufcles of animals. 
But the painter thould have all this and more; 
he fhould be acquainted with all their various 
tints, their manner of living, their peculiar 
motions or attitudes, and their places of abode*, 
or he will fall into maniteft errors. 
Plurimus inde labor tabulas imitando juvabit 
hag operumque typos, fed plura docebit 
a 
tura ante oculos prefens, nam firmat et auget - 
Vim genii, ex illaque artem experientia complet.+ 
Defcriptive poetry is ftill more indebted to 
natural knowledge, than either painting or 
{culpture: the poet has the whole creation 
for his range; nor can his art exift without 
borrowing metaphors, allufions, or defcrip- 
tions from the face of nature, which is the on- 
ly fund of great ideas. The depths of the feas, 
the internal caverns of the earth, and the pla- 
netary fy{ftem are out of the painter’s reach; 
but can fupply the poet with the fublimeft 
conceptions: noris the knowledge of animals 
* That great artift, Mr. Ridinger, of Aufburgh, exceeds 
all others in the three laft particulars ; nothing can equal his 
prints of animals for propriety of attitudes, for a juft idea of 
their way of life, and for the beautiful and natural fcenery 
that accompanies them. His fineft works are, his Wilde 
Thiere, Kleine Thiere, and Fagdbare Thiere ; but there re 
{carce any of his performances that can fail giving pleafure 
to all admirers of nature reprefented as herfelf. 
+ Frefioy de arte graph. lin, §37. 
and 
