hath lost its proper ballance, a man will be hated who fhall desire to see these corruptions rooted out; and he who commendeth and fostereth the noxious enormities will be approved by all who either buy or sell in this market of abomination.

No wise or good man, therefore, will ever set any great value upon so low a thing as the ignorant commendation of such as know so little of what is truly laudable. He will steadily pursue, (under the regulation of the taciturn prudence we have heretofore sett forth,) what he taketh to be right; and as he will not be greatly lifted up with the praise of such as are under the guidance of preju- . dice, soe neither will he be much cast down when he is hated and evil spoken of by them, but will rather account it to be an honour.

It was a witty and apposite saying of that great Athenian, who in a speech having received the applauses of the giddy multitude, turned to one in whose judgement he confided, and asked him if he had said a foolish thing.

Whoever is so fond of general commendation as to make the opinion of the vulgar the rule of his conduct, cannot fail of being oftentimes carried into monstrous and ridiculous errors; and although he may by artfull and immoral compliances gain the applause of his confederates, and of such as be gulled by them against the general good, he will be in the end despised and detested by all men, as having quenched the light of reason and vertue, and lied against the Holy Spirit of truth. It is therefore a master stroke in the art of life to moderate duely

April 24. the love of reputation soe far as never to aim at it by sinistrous devices, or strive to obtain it by such discourses or actions as accord not with real conscientious conviction; and which, if pursued, will fipally terminate in infamy and disgrace.

Another main spring of a goodly reputation, is in the prudent and happy ordering of common discourse, and in the choice of intimate companions.

In the ordering of discourse to give frequent occasion to the fhewing forth of the wit and knowledge of those with whom we converse, rather than our own; and not to push or jade any argument to the discontentment of the prolocutors, and still lefs to dart out sharp speeches, that are picquant and go to the quick; but try to furnish a pure and pleasing sort without bittern, and use satyre rather as a shield than javelin in the struggle of argument.

In the choice of companions to prefer such as have been of the acquaintance of your youth, that have no pursuits of ambition or profit of like nature with that have been known to vindicate your own; your conduct when your back was turned, and have animadvérted freely on your conduct to your face. Such companions may ripen into friends, and thus bring a phoenix into your haunts, out of whose ashes may spring in their children the solacement of your old age. Thus much concerning the art of ob taining and preserving a good name may suffice*.

*The Editor hopes his ingenious correspondent will pardon the freedom he has used in modernising the orthography a little, especially in regard to the common words, be, we, he, &c. One reason for this was the difficulty of getting it done without casual mistakes, which occasioned a disagreeable want of uniformity in the work; but the principal cause was that he has received several hints from correspondents requesting it.

`ON THE FINE ARTS.
9:0

THE understanding of man is very limited, but his vanity is unbounde; he ce it is hat though he cannot be said to know any one object in nature thoroughly, yet there is scarcely a subject that can come under investigation, on which he does not pronounce in a decisive tone. We frequently assign laws to nature, and pretend to discover causes, to prove that certain things can never happen that we have not already had occasion to take notice of. If, for example, Shakespeare had never appeared in Britain, certain philo ophers would have had no difficulty in afsigning reasons to prove that the climate, or the soil, or some other peculiarity of this island, were such as to preclude the possibility of our ever having a dramatic writer of any excellence in it. Any person who fhall take the trouble of looking into the writings of the French philosophers for half a century backwards, will there meet with whole volumes written to prove that the air of this country is so t ck, the climate so variable, and in fhort so deplorably ill constituted, as to render it impofsible for any man who was born in it to have a genius for the fine arts, or ever to be able to attain even a moderate degree of excellence in music or poetry; but above all in painting of any sort, which they afsert has been, and for very obvious reasons, which they detail with the most triumphant pride and self consequence, must for ever remain beyond the reach of the natives of this isle,

April 24. But unfortunately for these very learned philosophers it has happened by a very strange fatality, that at the present time, in spite of these unanswer-able arguments, dame Nature, in one of those freaks which the often takes, as one might say on purpose to confound the wisdom of the wise, has so contrived matters as to raise painters of this isle to the first eminence in almost every department of the art of painting. Gavin Hamilton is allowed, even by foreigners, to be at this time above all his competitors in the historic line; unlefs some of the English school dispute the palm with him. Jacob More, a native of Edinburgh, who was bred a house painter, if I mistake not with old Norrie, is without doubt the first landscape painter in the world; and at this moment, even while he continues to produce new paintings daily, his pictures bring a higher price than those of Claude de Loraine, who has held the first rank in that line for a century past. Sir Jofhua Reynolds has raised portrait painting to a degree of dignity among the fine arts formerly unknown. By the elegance of his attitudes, the easy flow of his outline, and the unaffected though graceful simplicity which he has thrown into all his pictures, he has chastened even the taste of the connoifseur, while he charms the most ignorant beholder. Stubbs never had an equal for painting horses and other domestic animals; Elmer for dead game pofsefses merit of a superlative degree; and Wedgewood has introduced an elegance of form, and a delicacy in the mode of ornamenting even the most common pieces of furniture, that can be rivalled on

ly by the disciples that he himself has formed. But I should never have done were I to enumerate the various artists of the British school, who now claim an eminent degree of merit in the imitative arts.

Nature having thus belied the prophecies and fine spun theories of the French dictators in philosophy and science, they also have now altered their tone, and instead of attempting to prove, as heretofore, that Britain was incapable of producing a tolerable painter of any sort, they now discover that Britain pofsesses advantages beyond any other nation; and clearly demonstrate that the British school must of necefsity rise to a supreme excellence in this art, which none other could ever hope to reach. Whether their prophecies in this respect will prove more true than their former afsertions, we pretend not to say; but it is certain that our countrymen will be very willing to believe them in regard to this particular. For their satisfaction the following extract is selected from the last work on the fine arts published in France that has come in our way, not doubting but it will give very general satisfaction to our readers.

Extracts from the DICTIONAIRE des ARTS de PEINTURE, &c. par M. M. Watelet et Levesque.

The different Schools of Painting characterised. A NEW School is lately formed in England. Though yet in its infancy it has acquired reputation by its succefs; it deserves the applause, and ought to excite the emulation of its seniors, because it is disVOL. XIV.

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