The artists repository and drawing magazine: exhibiting the principles of the polite arts in their various branches (3.1789)

LECTURE II.

Ladies and Gentlemen,


ATURE is ever various in her ope»
rations and effects; but that variety,
however diffufe, or extended, is nevertheless
the result of certain general and permanent
principles, whose simplicity is accommodated
to occasions as they rise, and whose application
is directed by utility and convenience.
Art is the imitator of nature, and is never
so truly valuable and excellent, as When like
nature, its principles are few> fimple, and
facile; and their application general, certain,
and evident. It will therefore be my endea-
vour at this opportunity, to introduce to your
acquaintance, some of those elements of the
Practice of Perspective, whose utility is
molt extensive. Let us never forget, that our
business in treating the natural appearances of
objects, is not to surpass, or to vary, but to
imitate them ; and those are the moil useful
methods which to the readied expedition,
unite the happied certainty.

I wHh