Holland; will bring in wealth to the ftate; will furnish materials for manufactures and commerce; and become fources of new profits to the husbandman.

It is well known, that we owe the establishment of filk-worms in France, to the royal nurseries of mulberry-trees, raised in proper diftricts. Why then may we not expect equal fuccefs from the eftablishment of nurseries of the best kinds of sheep? from whence the loffes which may happen to farmers, by neglect or otherwife, may be fupplied.

The royal nurferies fhould not be reftricted to fheepand mulberry-trees only. All ufeful trees, whether domeftic or foreign, fhould be raised in nurferies for the ufe of the

countries around; and being fold as cheap as the attendance neceffary for raifing them will permit, the low price may be an inducement to many to purchase them.

There the best of all the refinous kinds fhould be raised. Such are the pines, which yield turpentine, and are best for malts; the cedar, efpecially that of Libanus. The Spaniards built in the last century fhips of cedar, which are still remaining, and are lafting monuments of the value of this wood. In the Pais de Vaud, all their houses are covered with fhingles of the larchtree: the refin is drawn forth by the heat of the fun, and foon hardens into a strong varnish, whichrenders thefe coverings verydurable. The cyprefs is alfo of great ufe.

Chefnuts, especially the grafted kind, frequent about Lyons, would become a new branch of rural economy. The horse chefnut has also its good qualities, and is now become peculiarly valuable for the ef

ficacy of the nut in bleaching. The oak, the afh, the maple, the elm, &c. are all valuable for different purposes. Time, and the experience of fome years, may difcover trees whofe ufes we are not yet acquainted with.

Much of the country of Normandy lies wafte, and the fides of hills are naked, where many kinds of trees might be planted to great advantage. If this propofal is carried into execution, the Society of Rouen will bestow upon it the utmost attention."

Some extracts from a difcourfe delivered at the opening of the Royal Academy, Jan. 2, 1769, by the prefident.

N

I this difcourfe Mr. Reynolds

tulating the members of the Academy upon its establishment by the munificence of his majefty, obferves, "that it will at least contribute to ad vance the knowledge of the arts, and bring us nearer to that ideal excellence which it is the lot of Genius always to contemplate, and never to attain." This fentiment none but a genius, confcions to the idea of unattainable perfection, and a perpetual effort to approach it, could have conceived. Those who are fatisfied, either with whatthey produce themfelves, or even with what they fee produced by others, will step far fhort of attainable excellence. No production of art, however fuperior to what we can produce at the time, fhould be confidered as the bound; yet, if we pass it, we must first reach it by regular approaches, and, with this diftinction in view, we shall find Mr. Reynolds's rules to confider the works of great masters as a

pattern,

pattern, and minutely and laborioufly to copy nature, as perfectly compatible. It is from an acquaintance with nature that we are to form conceptions, from the study of art we are to learn in what manner they may be best expreffed. "By attending to great examples of the art, fays Mr. Reynolds, genius will find materials, without which, the strongest intellect may be fruitlessly or devioufly employed; by studying thefe authentic models, thofe beauties which were the gradual refult of the accumulated experience of past ages may be acquired at once: the student receives at one glance,the principles which many artists have spent their whole lives in afcertaining."

The following obfervation is equally curious and just. "Every feminary of learning may be faid to be furrounded by an atmosphere of floating knowledge, where every mind may gather fomething congenial to its own original conceptions., Knowledge, thus obtained, has always fomething more popular and ufeful, than that which is forced upon the mind by private precepts of folitary meditation. Befides, it is generally found, that a youth mare eafly receives inftructions from the companions of his ftudies, whofe minds are nearly upon a level with his own, than from those who are much his fuperiors; and it is from his equals only, that he catches the fire of emulation, which will not a little contribute to his advancement."

Whatever produces fedulous application, tends immediately to produce excellence, and perhaps, what is called genius for particular employments and purfuits, may be refolved wholly into a taste, a liking for this or that object, just as arbitrary and as independent of intelVOL. XII.

lectual ftrength, as a liking of dif ferent fruits, which, by making labour pleafing, produces a more intenfe application, longer continued than the agent could otherwise be brought to endure. With the fame degree of application, excellence will be in proportion to ability; but the determination of ability to a particular labour feems to depend wholly upon tafte, and not upon a fpecific difference in the ability or power itfeif, as generally imagined.

Mr. Reynolds, having remarked, that we, having nothing to unlearn, poffefs, at leaft, one advantage, which no other nation can boast, proceeds to lay down rules by which we may learn with most advantage, which are in fubstance as follow.

An implicit obedience to the rules of art, as eftablished by the practice of the great mafters, fhould be exacted from the young ftudents. And every opportunity fhould be taken to difcountenance that falfe and vulgar opinion, that rules are the fetters of genius: they are fetters only to men of no genius; as that armour, which upon the ftrong becomes an ornament and a defence, upon the weak and mifhapen turns into a load, and cripples the body which it was made to protect.

How much liberty may be taken to break through thofe rules, and, as the poet expreffes it, To fnatch a grace b nd the reach of art, may be an after-confideration, when the pupils become mafters themfelves. It is then, when their genius has received its utmost improvement, that rules may be difpenfed swith; but let us not deftry the fuffold until we have raised the building.

The directors ought more particularly to watch over the genius of thofe ftudents, who, being more [P]

advanced,

advanced, are arrived at that critical period of ftudy, on the nice management of which their future turn of tafte depends.

At that age it is natural for them to be more captivated with what is brilliant than what is folid, and to prefer fplendid negligence to painful and humiliating exactnefs.

A facility in compofing, a lively, and what is called a masterly handling the chalk or pencil, are, it muft be confefled; captivating qualities to young minds, and become of courfe the objects of their ambition; they endeavour to imitate thofe dazzling excellencies, which they will find no great labour in attaining. After much time spent in these frivolous purfuits, the difficulty will be to retreat; but it will be then too late; and there is fcarce an inftance of return to fcrupulous labour, after the mind has been relaxed and debauched bythefe delightful trifles. By this ufelefs dexterity they are excluded from all power of advancing in real excellence. Whilft boys, they are arrived at their utmoft perfection; they have taken the fhadow for the fubftance, and make that mechanical facility the chief excellence of the art, which is only an ornament, and of the merit of which few but painters themfelves are judges.

But young men have not only this frivolous ambition of being thought masterly inciting them on one hand, but alfo their natural floth tempting them on the other; they are terrified at the profpect before them, of the toil required to attain exactnefs. They wish to find fome thorter path to excellence, and hope to obtain the reward of eminence by other means than thofe which the indifpenfible rules of art have prefcribed.

They must therefore be told again and again, that labour is only the price of juft fame, and that whatever their force of genius may be, there is no eafy method of becoming a good painter.

To be convinced with what perfevering affiduity the moft eminent painters purfued their ftudies, we need only reflect on the method of proceeding in their moft celebrated works. When they had conceived a fubject, they firft made a variety of sketches, then a finished drawing of the whole; after that, a more correct drawing of every feparate part, heads, hands, feet, and pieces of drapery; then they painted the picture, and after all re-touched it from the life. The pictures, thus wrought with fuch pain, now appear like the effect of enchantment, as if fome mighty genius had ftruck them off at a blow.

The ftudents, instead of vying with each other which fhall have the readieft hand, fhould be taught to contend who fhall have the pureft and moft correct outline; inftead of ftriving which fhall produce the brighteft tint, or, curioufly trifling, endeavour to give the glofs of stuffs fo as to appear real, let their ambition be directed to contend, which fhall difpofe his drapery in the moft graceful folds, which fhall give the moft grace and dignity to the human figure.

In none of the academies that I have vifited, do the ftudents draw exactly from the living models which they have before them. It is not indeed their intention, nor are they directed to do it. Their drawings refemble the model only in the attitude. They change the form according to their vague and uncertain ideas of beauty, and make a

drawing

drawing rather of what they think the figure ought to be, than of what it appears. I have thought this the obitacle, that has stopt the progrefs of many young men of real genius; and I very much doubt, whethera habit of drawing correctly what we fee, will not give a proportionable power of drawing correctly what we imagine. He who endeavours to copy nicely the figure before him, not only acquires a habit of exactnefs and precifion, but is continually advancing in his knowledge of the human figure; and though he feems to fuperficial obfervers to make a flower progrefs, he will be found at laft capable of adding (without running into capricious wildness) that grace and beauty, which is neceffary to be given to his more finifhed works, and which cannot be got by the moderns, as it was not acquired by the ancients, but by an attentive and well-compared ftudy of the human form.

By a drawing of Raffaelle, the Dif pute of the Sacrament, the print of

which, by Count Cailus, is in every hand, it appears, he made his sketch from one model; and the habit he had of drawing exactly from the form before him, appears by his making all the figures with the fame cap, fuch as his model then happened to wear; fo fervile a copyift was this great man, even at a time when he was allowed to be at his highest pitch of excellence.

I have feen alfo academy figures by Annibale Carracci, though he was often fufficiently licentious in finished works, drawn with all the peculiarities of an individual model. This method can only be detrimental when there are but few living forms to copy; for then ftudents, by always drawing from one alone,

THE infurgents beg leave to

prefent this humble remon-ftrance to your majefty, fetting forth the reafons which obliged them, with hearts full of loyalty, to act as they did, that the whole world may be informed of them, and the fevereft judge pronounce the juftice of them.

They are well apprized that fome bafe-hearted men have impofed on your majesty's benevolent mind, by infinuating that the late tumult proceeded from difloyalty aad a want of obedience in your majefty's fubjects, which may have prejudiced the Spanish nation in your majefty's opinion, and must neceffarily disturb that eafe and fecurity which they have always en[P2]

joyed