PAI 
strong gate. This word is sometimes used 
for the idol, as well as for the temple. 
Pagod, or Pagoda, 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 sensa- 
tion arising from a sudden and violent solu- 
tion of the continuity, or some other acci- 
dent in the nerves, membranes, vessels, 
muscles, &c. of.the body ; or, according to 
some, it consists in a motion of the 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 con- 
veying ideas to the mind by means of a re- 
presentation of the visible parts of nature. 
It is a language by which, though all things 
cannot, many at least may be expressed, in 
a stronger and clearer manner than can be 
etfected by any other ; nay, it is, to its ex- 
tent, a universal language ; though it is 
only in proportion 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 ser- 
viceable to ns in their full extent ; for al- 
though, in their natural and uncultivated 
state, they are enabled to present us with 
tolerably clear and distinct ideas of things of 
a simple kind, or which differ considerably 
from each other; it is far otherwise when 
we expect from them just ideas of things 
complicated, or of such as dififer 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'perhaps 
that of sight, and in one moment we are 
enabled to see many objects ; but we can- 
not, as Leonardo da 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 
discover the sense contained. No ! to un- 
derstand, we are obliged to read it ; and in 
case the subject be abstruse, and our com- 
prehensions dull, it may be necessary to pe- 
ruse it two or three times before the whole 
sense bs clearly understood by us; some 
PAI 
there may be who never will comprehend 
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 
oniy read slowly and with difficulty. 
We have judged it necessary to premise 
these few observations, in hopes to correct 
a mistaken but prevalent notion, that al- 
though a thorough conversance with paint- 
ing is required ere a person be adequate to 
decide discreetly as to the executive parts 
of a work of art, to distinguish the copy 
from the original, or the pencils of the dif- 
ferent 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 be- 
tween a bad picture and a good one. Nay, 
a moment is sufficient for one of these sel& 
dubbed critics to pass an irrevocable sen-i 
tence on the most extensive and studied 
composition. 
In treating the subject before us, we shall 
not by a slow and tedious process attempt 
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 commenc- 
ing a treatise on rhetoric with the minutiae 
of orthography and grammar. We shall 
rather, by a short inquiry into the funda- 
mental principles of the art, and a reference 
to the example of the greatest masters, 
draw his attention to the proper application 
of that mechanical skill of which we suppose 
him already possessed. 
Invention, composition, design, expres- 
sion, chiara obscura, and colouring, may per- 
haps not improperly be termed the great 
component parts of painting, unless indeed 
it be insisted that invention is rather the pa- 
rent and director of the others to the proper 
objects of their attainment 
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 visible objects, since by 
delineating outward demonstrations it is 
enabled to convey the ideas of internal af- 
fections and mental actions. It will neces- 
sarily follow that those subjects are the 
most immediately within the province of 
our art, whose essential qualities are as it 
were contained in the visible parts of things, 
or most capable of being expressed by ob- 
