PART II. OS PAINTING. 59 



the principles of composition. 4. The use of perspective. 

 And 5. The use of drawing in water-colours. 



1. Its use in perfecting the faculty of taste. — The first ad- 

 vantage which results from the study and practice of paint- 

 ing, is a taste for excellence, and especially picturesque 

 beauty, in most visible objects, both of landscape and archi- 

 tecture. An improver, ignorant of the principles and dead to 

 the excellencies of painting, will look at nature only with a 

 reference to the mechanical principles of his own art, as a 

 mere walk-maker, clumper, or grazier ; and of course he will 

 admire only such trees as are regular and present one mass of 

 smooth green, and such groupes as have fewest undergrowths 

 and are nearest the shape of the clump. All rough plants, 

 ferns, or low growths, he will disregard, as obstructing the 

 smooth surface of the pasture ; and all natural paths please 

 him only as their direction is formal or serpentine and their 

 edges marked by distinct straight lines. But a person who 

 has studied painting acquires a relish for connexion, intricacy, 

 and truth ; and soon perceives that the chief excellence of 

 rural scenes consists in the prevalence of nature. Hence 

 wherever nature is to prevail, he wisely judges either to conceal 

 art, or banish it altogether. His walks are only marked with 

 distinct edges in scenes avowedly artificial, as near the mansion 

 land in the kitchen garden. His trees and shrubs are never 



