THE following Letter regards an ingenious Sett of Gentlemen who have done me the Honour to make me one of their Society. Mr.SPECTATOR, T Dec. 4. 17123 HE Academy of Painting, lately established in London, having done you and themselves the Honour to chuse you one of their Directors, that noble• and lovely Art, which before was entitled to your Re• gards, as a Spectator, has an additional Claim to you, • and you feem to be under a double Obligation to take fome Care of her Interest.. • THE Honour of our Country is also concerned in the • Matter I am going to lay before you: We (and perhaps other Nations as well as we) have a national false • Humility as well as a national Vain-glory; and tho • we boast our selves to excel all the World in Things • wherein we are out-done abroad, in other Things we ⚫ attribute to others a Superiority which we our selves. possess.. This is what is done, particularly in the Art of Portrait or Face-painting. • PAINTING is an Art of a vast Extent, too great ⚫ by much for any mortal Man to be in full Possession: of, in all its Parts; 'tis enough, if any one succeed in • painting Faces, History, Battles, Landscapes, Sea-pieces, Fruit, Flowers, or Drolls, &c. Nay, no Man ever was • excellent in all the Branches (tho' many in Number) of • these several Arts, for a distinct Art I take upon me to call every one of those several kinds of Painting, 6 AND as one Man may be a good Landscape Painter,. but unable to paint a Face or a History tolerably well, • and so of the rest; one Nation may excel in some kinds * of Painting, and other kinds may thrive better in other • Climates. • ITALY may have the Preference of all other Nations for History-painting; Holland for Drolls, and a neat • finish'd manner of Working; France for gay, janty, fluttering Pictures; and England for Portraits: But to give the Honour of every one of these kinds of Paint-ing to any one of those Nations on account of their Ex* cellence in any of these Parts of it, is like adjudging the Prize of Heroick, Dramatick, Lyrick or Burlesque lesque Poetry, to him who has done well in any one • of them. • WHERE there are the greatest Genius's, and most Helps and Encouragements, 'tis reasonable to suppose an Art will arrive to the greatest Perfection: By this Rule let us consider our own Country with respect to • Face-painting. No Nation in the World delights fo much in having their own, or Friends, or Relations • Pictures; whether from their national Good-nature, or having a Love to Painting; and not being encouraged * in that great Article of religious Pictures, which the Purity of our Worship refuses the free Use of, or from • whatever other Cause. Our Helps are not inferior to those of any other People, but rather they are greater; • for what the antique Statues and Bas-reliefs which Italy ⚫ enjoys are to the History-painters, the beautiful and • noble Faces with which England is confessed to abound, are to Face painters; and besides we have the greatest • Number of the Works of the best Masters in that kind • of any People, not without a competent Number of ⚫ those of the most excellent in every other Part of • Painting. And for Encouragement, the Wealth and • Generosity of the English Nation affords that in such a • Degree, as Artists have no Reason to complain. ' AND accordingly in Fact, Face painting is no where • so well performed as in England. I know not whether • it has lain in your way to observe it, but I have, and • pretend to be a tolerable Judge. I have seen what is • done abroad, and can affure you, that the Honour of that Branch of Painting is juitly due to us. I appeal to the judicious Observers for the Truth of what I afsfert. • If Foreigners have oftentimes, or even for the most • part excelled our Natives, it ought to be imputed to • the Advantages they have met with here, join'd to their • own Ingenuity and Industry; nor has any one Nation • diftinguished themselves so as to raise an Argument in • favour of their Country: But it is to be observed, that ' neither French nor Italians, nor any one of either Na' tion, notwithstanding all our Prejudices in their favour have, or ever had, for any confiderable Time, any Character among us as Face-painters. THA • THIS Honour is due to our own Country; and has • been fo for near an Age: So that instead of going to Italy, or elsewhere, one that designs for Portrait-paint• ing ought to study in England. Hither such should • come from Holland, France, Italy, Germany, &c. as he that intends to practise any other kind of Painting, • should go to those Parts where 'tis in greatest Perfection. 'Tis said the blessed Virgin descended from Heaven to fit to St. Luke; I dare venture to affirm, that if • she should defire another Madonna to be painted by the • Life, she would come to England; and am of Opinion ⚫ that your present President, Sir Godfrey Kneller, from ⚫ his Improvement since he arrived in this Kingdom, • would perform that Office better than any Foreigner living. I am, with all possible Respect, SIR, Your most humble, and Most obedient Servant, &c. THE ingenious Letters fign'd the Weather-glass, with feveral others, were received, but came too late. POSTSCRIPT. It had not come to my Knowledge, when I left off the Spectator, that I owe several excellent Sentiments and agreeable Pieces in this Work to Mr. Ince of Gray's Inn R. STELLE THE THE INDEX. A A. CTION, a necessary Qualification in an Orator; Actor, absent, who so call'd by Theophraftus, N. 541. Allegories; the Reception the Spectator's allegorical Wri- Audience, the Gross of an Audience of whom compos'd, 1 'Auguftus, his Reproof to the Roman Batchelors, N. 528. of their Works, N. 529. B B. Acon (Sir Francis) his extraordinary Learning and Bamboo (Benjamin) the Philofophical Use he refolves to Beauty, the Force of it, N. 510. Beings: the Scale of Beings considered by the Spectator, Biting, a kind of Mungrel Wit described and exploded Biton and Clitobus, their Story related, and apply'd by the Spectator, N. 483. Body (human) the Work of a transcendently wife and C Alamities not to be distinguish'd from Blessings, N. Gampbell (Mr.) the dumb Fortune-teller, an extraordi- Cato, the Grounds for his Belief of the Immortality of Celibacy, the great Evil of the Nation, N. 528. Children, a Multitude of them one of the Blessings of Cicero, the great Roman Orator, his extraordinary Super- Comfort an Attendant on Patience, N. 501. Contemplation, the way to Ν. 514. the Mountain ain of of the Muses, Cot-queans, described by a Lady who has one for her Coverly (Sir Roger de) an Account of his Death brought Country-life, a Scheme of it, Ν. 474. Country-wake, a Farce, commended by the Spectator, Ν. 502. DApperwit (Tom) D his Opinion of Matrimony, Ν. 482. recommended by Will. Honeycomb to fucceed him in the Spectator's Club, N. 530. Diagoras the Atheist, his Behaviour to the Athenians in a Storm, N. 483, |