be a fault, yet, if the artist considered himself as engaged to

furnish this gallery with a rich and splendid ornament, this could

not be done, at least in an equal degree, without peopling the air

and water with these allegorical figures: he therefore

accomplished that he purposes. In this case all lesser

considerations, which tend to obstruct the great end of the work,

must yield and give way.

If it is objected that Rubens judged ill at first in thinking it

necessary to make his work so very ornamental, this brings the

question upon new ground. It was his peculiar style; he could

paint in no other; and he was selected for that work, probably,

because it was his style. Nobody will dispute but some of the best

of the Roman or Bolognian schools would have produced a more

learned and more noble work.

This leads us to another important province of taste, of weighing

the value of the different classes of the art, and of estimating

them accordingly.

All arts have means within them of applying themselves with success

both to the intellectual and sensitive part of our natures. It can

be no dispute, supposing both these means put in practice with

equal abilities, to which we ought to give the preference: to him

who represents the heroic arts and more dignified passions of man,

or to him who, by the help of meretricious ornaments, however

elegant and graceful, captivates the sensuality, as it may be

called, of our taste. Thus the Roman and Bolognian schools are

reasonably preferred to the Venetian, Flemish, or Dutch schools, as

they address themselves to our best and noblest faculties.

Well-turned periods in eloquence, or harmony of numbers in poetry,

which are in those arts what colouring is in painting, however

highly we may esteem them, can never be considered as of equal