108 
defert their native faculties, nor without, 
at the fame time, deviating from the. 
paths which lead to excellence and im- 
mortality. 
On the other hand, neceflity may fome- 
times chain down the reluctant {pirit, and 
the fenfe of honour may remain firm and 
vivid, although its call can no longer be 
obeyed : but, on the fuppofition of the 
freedom of choice and aétion being on an 
average footing with the moderate con- 
ditions of life, it is unqueftionable that 
the wifh, the conteft for honourable dif- 
tin¢tions, may be regarded as the invari« 
able teft of fuch talents as are deligned 
by providence to illumine and inttruct 
mankind. 
Tt is not meant, by hong ane diftine- 
tions, te inply the acquilition or pofieffion 
of inerely olientatious, or mappropriate 
titles, but the acquifition of fuch marked 
acknowlédgmeat of eminent powers, as 
may every where fecure thie claims of the 
pofeifor to deference and refpect. Titles 
and rank bear no eflential relatian to 
istrinfic merit, yetare they ftillthe agreed 
fyinbols, or, im a manner, the current and 
legal com of public efteem. The coin, 
itis allowed, is often debafed, and often 
counterfeit; but thefe are circumftances 
which produce no alteration in the value 
of its orginal ftandard. 
If diltinctions, then, imply the acknow- 
ledgment of fuperior merit, if they reflect 
back to the mind the fenfation of honour, 
they muit be found to form one of the 
molt congenial modes of eliciting the 
native powers of genius. 
But, they may likewife be confidered 
as Hehe: y to the moft falutary exertions 
of genius. It is defirable, not only to 
cultivate the genius of eur land, but to 
give to its Pibsyatian a philanthropic ’ 
tendency, to make it beneficial as well as 
powerful, and that, while it acquires the 
force requilite to win adimiration, it 
fhould alfo adopt the modes mott ca!cu- 
lated to obtain our affection. Thefe 
modes it will the moft readily affume, 
while it looks forward to a return of fa- 
vourable attention from the minds. of 
thofe, to whem it dire¢ts its influence. 
Merit ac oetielied to watch and cherih in 
fiiitede the germs of ternal talent, and 
unable finally to reicue its claims from 
obicurity, wall not, indecd, lofe its powers, 
nor forteit its effential title to fuperionty, 
bat it is in danger of eventually afluming 
an air more favage than benevolent, of 
di€tating rather than perfuading, of de- 
terring ‘Inftead of inviting: if “urged to 
contelt by oppofition, it too frequently 
The Enquirer.—No. XX]. 
[March 4; 
deierts the paths of inftruction, to obey. 
the impultes of irritated feelings, derides 
or ftigmatizes what nature would have 
prompted it to admire, and endeavours 
to fubvert what it is not allowed to polith. 
Every laudable purpofe of fociety, with 
regard to the arts, is therefore accom- 
plithed by annexing honours to the fuc- 
cefsful exertion of talents. Ner is this 
doctrine new in refpect of the yeneral in- 
{titutions of all civilized nations, for the 
progrefs of intellectual ttudies. It is, for- 
tunately for learning, new only im relpect 
to the cultivation of the arts of painting 
and {culpture ; and, unfortunately for us, 
it is, in this refpect, newer in England 
than in any other country in Europe. An 
Academy of the Arts eftablifhed by royal 
favour has, indeed, elevated a certain 
number from the common mais, and the 
induttry of its members has feeured thei 
from the defvlating profpect of mendicity; 
but there is no great honour in attaming 
what it is a difevace not to avoid; the 
feat which mediocrity may reach Gannct 
be a ground of diftinétion; for other dif- 
tinctions are necellary towards the exal- 
tation of the arts. 
-Let us new enguire what other rewards 
of honour are open to thofe arts in Eng- 
land. The only one which our flate ac- 
knowledges, 1s the title of King’s Painter, 
annexed to an otlice to which the painter 
is generally advanced, not by public 
competition, but by private favour, and 
fo little regarded as ‘an object of fame, 
that the artit, if he do not difdam, at 
leaft overlooks the employment; for he 
hires inferior painters at a cheap rate, to 
paint the pictures required of him, and te 
enable him to take what he regards as 
the only refpectable fruits of his ofiice, 
into his pocket. This othce was, fume 
years fince, ludicroully conferred on the 
late Sir Jothua Reynolds: I fay ludi- 
crouily, for who but mutt {mile on refleét- 
ing that an artilt, to whom the fovereign 
always declined to fit for his portrait, 
was chofen to convey the refemblance of 
that very monarch to foreign nations, and 
to their lateft potterity ? Yet, ridiculous 
as this cirgumitance may appear, it was, 
alas! the only initance of royal favour 
which graced the profethonal efforts of 
that moft accomplifhed painter, either | 
before or after he became, from fecond- 
ary viens, the titled Pr efident of the Aca- 
deiny aie to whofe hand nature gave 
her own truth, and from whofe pencil fhe 
borrowed grace, he, by whom. Alexander 
would have cholen, i in the polifhed age of 
Greece, 40 tranfinit his image to future 
Uges, 
