VII.

nefs, which may involve any particular SECT. Part, to his own Incapacity and Ignorance. And juftly; for as the noble Writer hath told us on this very Occafion, "In an Inરે finity of Things thus relative, a Mind, which fees not infinitely, can fee nothing fully.

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LET us therefore, while as yet we fee but as through a Glass and darkly, contemplate the Works of God with Reverence and Submiffion. Let us wait the happier Hour, when we fhall know even as we are known : when we shall be raised to a more enlarged Comprehenfion of our Creator's immenfe Designs; and the whole intelligent Creation fhall joyn, in confeffing and adoring the unerring Rectitude of all his Difpenfations.

SECTION VIII.

VIII.

HITHERTO we have feen the SECT. noble Writer buffooning and difgracing Christianity, from a false Representation of its material Part: we fhall now confider what he hath thrown out against the Compofition, Style, and Manner of the facred

SECT. Scriptures, for on this too, he has thought VIII. it expedient to point his Raillery.

. He tells us, in the ironical Tone," that "the Scriptural Defcriptions, Narrations, "Expreffions, and Phrases, are in them"felves many Times exceedingly pleasant, "entertaining, and facetious. That

"our Saviour's Style, his Parables, Si"milies, Comparisons,

--

his Exhortations

Το

"to his Difciples, the Images under which
"he often couches his Morals and pruden-
"tial Rules
carry with them a certain
Feftivity, Alacrity, and good Humour
"fo remarkable, that I fhould look upon
"it as impoffible not to be mov'd in a plea-
fant Manner at their Recital".'
thefe general Cavils he hath added a Simile
in another Mifcellany, which, as is usual
with all fanciful Writers, is to ftand for an
Argument. He fays "'tis no otherwise
"in the grammatical Art of Characters, and
'painted Speech, than in the Art of Paint-

ing itself. I have feen, in certain Chrif"tian Churches, an ancient Piece or two, "affirm'd on the folemn Faith of priestly "Tradition, to have been angelically and divinely wrought, by a fupernatural • Mifc. ii. c. 3.

"Hand

"Hand and facred Pencil.

Had the Piece SECT.

happen'd to be of a Hand like RAPHA"EL'S, I could have found nothing cer"tain to oppofe to this Tradition. But

having obferved the whole Style and "Manner of the pretended heavenly Work"manship to be fo indifferent, as to vary "in many Particulars from the Truth of "Art, I presum'd within myself to beg "Pardon of the Tradition, and affert confidently, that, if the Pencil had been

Heaven-guided, it could never have been "fo lame in it's Performancet." This ingenious Conceit, in the fubfequent Paragraph, he very clearly, tho' flyly, applies to the holy Scriptures.

'Tis the Province of Wit to form Comparifons; of Philofophy, to detect their Weaknefs, when they are obtruded on us as a Teft of Truth. On Examination therefore I will venture to fay, the noble Writer's Parallel will be found highly irregular and defective.

FOR there is an effential Difference between Paintings and Writing, both in their End and Execution. Paintings, with Regard to their End, are things of mere A: Mife. v. c. x.

VIII.

SECT. mufement and Tafte: Confequently all their VIII. Value lies in the Exquifitenefs of the Art,

and the fine Hand of the Mafter. 'Tis likewise a Species of Art, that lies chiefly among the Few; the Bulk of Mankind (or in the noble Writer's more elegant Phrafe, the mere Vulgar) being incapable, thro' a Want of Leifure, of gaining any Proficiency in this Tafte; or of acquiring that curious Difcernment in Ordonnance, Drawing, and Colouring, which is at once the Pride and Pleasure of the Virtuofo-Tribe.

BUT with Refpect to Language the Affair is otherwife: It's Ends are various. From the Four different Kinds of literary Compofition, as explained above", there muft arise a correfpondent Variety of Style, the Poetical, the Oratorial, the Hiftorical and Didactic. The First of these Kinds alone partakes of the Nature of Picture, and therefore can alone be properly compared with it; as they are both referr'd to the Imagination, for the End of Pleafure: The other three Species of Compofition, tending chiefly to Utility, by the Means of Perfuafion or Inftruction, draw their prime Value from Plainnefs, Clearnefs, and Pre• See Effay, i. § 3.

1

cifion :

VIII.

cifion: From being adapted, not to the SEC T. Taste of the faftidious Critic, but to the Capacities of those who are the intended Objects of Perfwafion or Inftruction. Here then, the noble Writer's Parallel is effentially defective: Since it was the Intention of Providence, in the facred Scriptures, to condefcend to what his Lordship's Quality and refined Wisdom intitle him to difdain, even to inftruct the mere Vulgar: Whereas the End of Painting, is only the Amusement of the Few.

IN Regard to the Execution, we shall find as wide a Difference. There is, in Philofophical ftrictness, but one anvary'd Language or Style in Painting, which is "such a Modification of Light or Colours as

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may imitate whatever Objects we find in "Nature." This confifts not in the Application of arbitrary Signs; but hath it's Foundation in the Senfes and Reafon of Mankind; and is therefore the fame in every Age and Nation. But in the literary Style or Language, the Matter is far otherwife, For Language being the voluntary Application of arbitrary Signs, according to the Confent of different Men and Nations, there is no fingle uniform Model of Nature to be

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follow