DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0052
41 HISTORY OF ART. [LECT. II.
or a noble building; a curious production of Art,
or an uncommon appearance of Nature, is not only
a desireable amusement, but an useful accomplish-
ment. To preserve to remote posterity the resem-
blances of illustrious personages, to transmit objects
of attention to foreign climes, is no inconsiderable
attainment: we are pleased with the talents of distant
Artists; in return, our own performances command
their applause.
As this remark, is peculiarly applicable to those
whom I have the honour to address: I beg leave to
lav no little stress upon it. I would not have it
thought that barren elegance merely (pardon the
term) is the whole which now engages our atten-
tion ; the Arts, though elegancies undoubtedly, are
yet useful elegancies; and though they are entitled
to respect, as branches of polite education, yet, were
they considered rather as to the advantages resulting
from them, they would fully justify, as they would
amply reward, both the time and the attention their
study might have occupied.
Let us further reflect, that, beside the information
and elegance of these studies, they impart numerous
advantages to industry in general; how many inge-
nious professions, not in Britain only, but in every
civilized nation, are witnesses to this fact ! Survey
a magnificent apartment, which of its embellish-
ments can be executed with decent symmetry, not
to mention elegance and taste, without knowledge in
Design ? Proportion, which is the very life of De-
sign, must be observed in every article, and must re-
gulate the whole ; for, if disproportionate in its parts,
or a noble building; a curious production of Art,
or an uncommon appearance of Nature, is not only
a desireable amusement, but an useful accomplish-
ment. To preserve to remote posterity the resem-
blances of illustrious personages, to transmit objects
of attention to foreign climes, is no inconsiderable
attainment: we are pleased with the talents of distant
Artists; in return, our own performances command
their applause.
As this remark, is peculiarly applicable to those
whom I have the honour to address: I beg leave to
lav no little stress upon it. I would not have it
thought that barren elegance merely (pardon the
term) is the whole which now engages our atten-
tion ; the Arts, though elegancies undoubtedly, are
yet useful elegancies; and though they are entitled
to respect, as branches of polite education, yet, were
they considered rather as to the advantages resulting
from them, they would fully justify, as they would
amply reward, both the time and the attention their
study might have occupied.
Let us further reflect, that, beside the information
and elegance of these studies, they impart numerous
advantages to industry in general; how many inge-
nious professions, not in Britain only, but in every
civilized nation, are witnesses to this fact ! Survey
a magnificent apartment, which of its embellish-
ments can be executed with decent symmetry, not
to mention elegance and taste, without knowledge in
Design ? Proportion, which is the very life of De-
sign, must be observed in every article, and must re-
gulate the whole ; for, if disproportionate in its parts,