218 



which all men of liberal minds may claim 

 in common with the painter : that mere 

 ugliness is no less disgusting to him, than 

 to the rest of the world ; but that a num- 

 ber of objects, neither grand, nor beautiful, 

 nor ugly, are in a manner the peculiar 

 property of the painter and his art, being 

 by them first illustrated, and brought into 

 notice and general observation. When 

 such an idea had once begun to prevail, it 

 was very natural that a word should be in- 

 vented, and soon be commonly made use 

 of, which discriminated the character of 

 such objects, by their relation to the artist 

 himself, or to his work : we find accord- 

 ingly that the Italians, among whom paint- 

 ing most flourished, invented the word 

 piftorescOy which marks the relation to the 

 painter, and which the French, with a slight 

 change, have adopted ; while the English 

 use the word picturesque, as related to the 

 production. What has just been said, 

 will, I trust, be thought to account with 

 some probability for the origin of the 



