trayed to death by his friends; it bringing to his mind a ftinging remembrance of his treatment of Ariftonicus. Portia could bear with an unfhaken conftancy her last feparation from Brutus; but when the faw, fome hours after, a picture of the parting of Hector and Andromache, fhe burst into a flood of tears: Full as feemed her forrow, the painter fuggefted new ideas of grief, or imprefs'd more ftrongly her own. I have fomewhere met with a pretty story of an Athenian courtezan, who, in the midst of a riotous banquet with her lovers, accidentally caft her eye on the portrait of a philofopher, that hung oppofite to her feat; the happy character of temperance and virtue, ftruck her with fo lively an image of her own unworthiness, that fhe instantly quitted her room; and retiring home, became ever after an example of temperance, as fhe had been before of debauchery. You might tax me with doing injustice to

the present times, were I to draw all my proofs from the ancient; I appeal, therefore, to yourfelf, who have had an opportunity to prove it, whether you could look on the death of Germanicus, as painted by Poufin, without feeling a generous indignation at the cruelty of his oppreffor, and an equal compaffion for unhappy virtue. The reprefentation of a plague, by the fame author, melts the foul into a tender participation of human miferies: These impressions end not here; they give a turn to the mind advantageous to fociety; every argument of forrow, every object of dif trefs, renews the fame foft vibrations, and quickens us to acts of humanity and benevolence.

B. By what fatality has it been, that a nation, eminent for its productions in poetry and eloquence, capable of the greateft efforts of genius, and bleft with the happiest

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happiest fenfibility, fhould, for so many ages, with a kind of wilful and Gothic rudeness, have withstood the allurements of this divine art?

4. THE extraordinary paffion which the English have for portraits, muft ever prevent the rife of history painting among us: The liberal, like the mechanick arts, de pend wholly on the encouragement they meet with.

B. Ir fhould feem, that we inherit our tafte in painting from cur British ancestors; Propertius has given a picture of them, which, with the smallest allowance, might pass for our own. [a]

Like the daub'd Briton now you strike the eye,
And look more trifling in a borrow'd die.

[a] Nunc etiam infectos demens imitare Britannos,

Ludis et externo tincta nitore caput.

Lib. ii. Eleg. 18,

It is, you fee, the fame fpirit, a little varied in its operations.

A. YOUR countrymen will not thank you for having revived this branch of their inheritance. But, to refume our fubject; it is certain, that the love of this art has been confidered in every civilized nation, not only as a proof of their politenefs, but even as the test of their humanity. Virgil, who feldom hazards his reflections, has given us a fingular inftance of his judgment on this point. Eneas, on his landing in Africk, has many fears touching the temper and manners of the Africans; but he no fooner fees the walls of their temple covered with paintings, than, fecure of a reception, he cries out in a tranfport to his friend [b]:

[6] Sunt lacrymæ rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt. Solve metum.

Æneid. i.

Here

Here others ills are felt, the wretched here
Are fure to meet the tribute of a tear.
Vain were our fears.

B. WHAT then muft Eneas have thought, had he heard, that in that country, painting was taxed by the foot, or feen his helpless Penates hurried away to the custom-house?

A. You may expect, that, before I quit the effects of paint, I should say fomething of the pleasure we receive from it. But, as this is itself a paffion, founded on the love of what is beautiful, and the delight we feel in having our paffions moved, it is eafier to affirm its existence, than to explain its nature.-It is enough therefore to observe, that this pleasure has prevailed in every age, and takes in all characters of men, from the elegant,

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