afforded plenty of beautiful originals to be copied in these imitative arts. Statuary, a more simple imitation than painting, was fooner brought to perfection: the ftatue of Jupiter by Phidias and of Juno by Polycletes, tho' the admiration of all the world, were executed long before the art of light and fhade was known. Appollodorus, and Zeuxis his difciple, who flourished in the fifteenth Olympiad, were the first who figured in that art. Another cause concurred to advance ftatuary before paint→ ing in Greece, viz. a great demand for statues of their gods. Architecture, as a fine art, made a flower progrefs, Proportions, upon which its elegance chiefly. depends, cannot be accurately afcertained but by an infinity of trials in great build ings: a model cannot be relied on fora large and a small building even of theq fame form, require different proportions Gardening made a ftill flower progrefs than architecture: the palace of Alcinous, in the feventh book of the Odyffey, bis. grand and highly ornamented; but his garden is no better than what we term a kitchen-garden. Gardening has made a great progrefs in England. In France, na

ture

Sk. IV. 2. 02 15 Arts, éqabar wal 221s ture is facrificed to conceit. The gardens of Verfailles deviate from nature no lefs than the hanging gardens at Babylon. In Scotland, a tafte is happily commenced for t neat houses and ornamented fields; and~ the circumftances of the people make it probable, that tafte there will improve gradually till it arrive at perfection. Few gentlemen in Scotland can afford the ex pence of London; and fuppofing them to pass the winter in a provincial town, they return to the occupations of the country with redoubled ardor. As they are fafe from the corruption of opulence, nature will be their guide in every plan; and the very face of their country will oblige them to follow nature; being diverfified with hills and plains, rocks and rivers, that re-i quire nothing but polishing. It is no un pleafing profpect, that Scotland may in a century or fooner compare with England; not indeed in magnificence of country) feats, but in sweetness and variety of concordant parts..

The ancient churches in this ifland cannot be our own invention, being unfit for a cold climate. The vaft fpace they occupy, quantity of ftone, and gloominess

by

by excluding the fun, afford a refreshing coolness, and fit them for a hot climate, It is highly probable that they have been copied from the mofques in the fouth of Spain, erected there by the Saracens. Spain, when poffeffed by that people, was the centre of arts and fciences, and led the fashion in every thing beautiful and magnificent.

From the fine arts mentioned, we proceed to literature. It is agreed among all antiquaries, that the first writings were in verfe, and that profe was of a much later date. The firft Greek who wrote in profe, was Pherecides Syrus: the first Roman, was Appius Cæcus, who compofed a declamation against Pyrrhus. The four books of Chatah Bhade, the facred book of Hindoftan, are compofed in verfe ftanzas; and the Arabian compofitions in profe followed long after thofe in verfe. To account for that fingular fact, many learned pens have been employ'd; but without fuccefs. By fome it has been urged, that as memory is the only record of events where writing is unknown, history origially was compofed in verfe for the fake. of memory. This is not fatisfactory. To

undertake

undertake the painful talk of compofing in verfe for the fake of memory, would require more forefight than ever was exerted by a barbarian; not to mention that other means were used for preferving the memory of remarkable events, a heap of ftones, a pillar, or other object that catches the eye. The account given by Longinus is more ingenious. In a fragment of his treatife on verfe, the only part that remains, he obferves, "that measure or verfe be"longs to poetry, becaufe poetry repre"fents the various paffions with their lanfguage; for which reason the ancients, "in their ordinary difcourfe, delivered "their thoughts in verfe rather than in "profe." Longinus thought, that anciently men were more expofed to accidents and dangers, than when they were protected by good government and by fortified cities. But he feems not to have confidered, that fear and grief, infpired by dangers and misfortunes, are better fuited to humble profe than to elevated verfe. I add, that however natural poetical diction may be when one is animated with any vivid paffion, it is not fuppofable that the ancients never wrote nor fpoke

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but when excited by paffion. Their hiftory, their laws, their covenants, were certainly not compofed in that tone of mind.

An important article in the progress of the fine arts that writers have not fuffi ciently attended to, will, if I mistake not, explain this mystery. The article is the profeffion of a bard, which sprung up in early times before writing was known, and died away gradually as writing turned more and more common. The curiosity of men is great with refpect to the tranfactions of their forefathers; and when fuch tranfactions are described in verse accompanied with mufic, the performance is enchanting. An ear, a voice, fkill in inftrumental mufic, and above all a poetical genius, are requifite to excel in that complicated art. As fuch talents are rare, the few that poffeffed them were highly esteemed; and hence the profeffion of a bard, which, befide natural talents, required more culture and exercise than any other known art. Bards were capital perfons at every festival and at every folemnity. Their fongs, which, by recording the atchievements of kings and heroes, animated

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