ART. V. A Philofophical and Critical Hiftory of the Fine Arts, Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture; with occafional Obfervations on the Progrefs of Engraving in its feveral Branches, deduced from the earliest Records, through every Country in which thofe Arts have been cherished, to their prefent Eftablishment in Great Britain, under the Aufpices of his Majelly King George III. In four Parts. Vol I. By the Rev. Robert Anthony Bromley, B. D. Boards. Cadell. 1793. 4to. pp. 436. l. is.

T must be acknowleged that in this work the author does not follow that arrangement which might be expected from the title of Hiftory. The two parts of the firft volume are very unequally divided. The contents of the first part may be philofophical and critical', (as the author has chofen to characterne his own performance,) but they cannot by any means deferve the appellation of historical. It contains feven chapters; of which the firft is defigned to prove that painting, confidered as fimple defign, is coeval with man, and the original writing of nature.' This chapter refolves itself into a proof, that it is natural to man to imitate objects by painting;' which, we believe, no body was ever difpofed to deny. The fecond chapter is employed in difplaying the advantages of painting, in an improved ftate, above all other modes of writing. Here the author feems to forget that, in an improved state of the arts, the provinces of painting and writing are altogether diftinct; and, therefore, that any comparison between them is unneceffary. The three following chapters treat of moral, hiftorical, and poetical painting. The fixth fhews that the cultivation of the fine arts is a fource of refined polish to manners;' and the feventh is entitled, the patronage of fine arts a luftre to greatnefs."

Part I. divided into three books and twelve chapters, is properly historical, treating of the progrefs and patronage of the fine arts in the antient world. The author follows the fyftem of D'Ancarville, making Scythia the cradle of all the arts of defign; which he traces (ftill following D'Ancarville,) from that barbarous country to Affyria and Mefopotamia; and thence, by the way of Egypt and Phenicia, into Greece. In a former volume of our Review, we had occafion to examine and refute the opinion of a great modern traveller *, who afcribes the oriental and Egyptian difcoveries to the Abyffinians; a people, according to the general teftimony of history, condemned, from local circumftances, to irremediable barba

See our laft article on Bruce's Travels, vol. iii. New Series,

P. 121. & feq.

rifm.

rifm. Analogous arguments might be opposed to the unfupported conjectures of D'Ancarville; who was better acquainted with monuments than with books, and whofe work, though highly ingenious in whatever concerns an explanation of the former, is often defective in drawing conclufions from the Jatter.

After a careful perufal of Mr. Bromley's volume, we cannot fay that we have been able to discover in it any thing of much moment refpecting the Hiftory of the Arts which had not been before advanced, and more advantageously treated, by D'Ancarville, or the Abbé Winckelmann. Neither of thefe works, however, is well adapted to the taste of English readers; and there was, confequently, an opportunity for recommending their obfervations to the public by precifion of method and ele gance of diction. As a fpecimen of Mr. B.'s ftyle, we give the following paragraphs, on the univerfality of picture writing:

-

• Such an univerfal concurrence in the first stages of every fociety. when the want of communication with others must have precluded the general means of imitation, fhews indifputably the force of Nature, and the attention with which the impreffed this talent on the human mind. But when we look forward to the comprehenfive powers which it has reached in the progrefs of time, and confider the fplendor with which it shines among the finer arts, the bounty of Nature in this fingle inftance fufpends for a while every other admiration of her works. She has been liberal to man in the variety of neceffary gifts: she has adorned his mind with various portions of excellence: but when the gave the talent, of which we are now fpeaking, fhe eftablished her claim to the never-ceafing gratitude of the human race, which, without the introduction of fo early and ftrong a tuition, might hardly have hoped to attain an art that ufurps fuch a compafs of refinement, and calls for fuch an infinity of skill;-from whose principles indeed has flowed whatever contributes to fill the name of the arts.

How the ruder traits of this natural art, if I may use the expreffion, moved forward through the fucceffive gradations of fubftituting a part for the whole of a figure, then of putting one figure to fignify many ideas, next of the fymbolic or hieroglyphic character, afterwards of the fyllabic by figns, till at last it reached the wonderful perfection of alphabetic writing, is not to our prefent purpose, which is content with fhewing that it was the important voice of Nature fpeaking in an uniform tone to the firft capacities of mankind. And as it was Nature in its origin, fo the has kindly watched over its progrefs ever fince, till in its cultivation it has become the very fummit of art. If its firit attempts have been degraded by the fubfequent perfection of writing, it has triumphed in its turn over its rival, and by the improvements which it has acquired from time and from its own infinite fource of excellence, it has far outftripped all writing in

the magnitude of its effect, in the scope, and force, and dignity, and univerfality of its inftruction.'

As a farther fpecimen, we infert a paffage intended to fhew the fuperiority of painting to poetry:

The death of Hector, and particularly in that moment when his body was brought back into Troy, will give us an example in every way circumftanced to do juftice to our fentiment. On the fide of writing it has every advantage that writing can have-the moft mafterly difplay of the most original and lofty poet, who was equal not only to the first attractions that could be given to real incident, but to the livelieft and yet the correcteft fallies of imagination--who knew human nature confummately well, knew where and how to give the fineft touches to its feelings, and was perfectly poffeffed of that great touchftone of true erudition, the art of coming, by the fhorteft and choiceft expreffions, to the most forcible ideas; with a language too in his hands, which by its peculiar combinations was moft happily calculated to facilitate this point.

Befides this, if ever there was a subject that could call forth the abilities of a Homer, that could make him collect himself, and pour forth all the animation of his mind to meet with all imaginable rapidity the ardent expectations of his readers, it was that great event, fo fraught with every thing that could ftrike a feeling mind, or fuggeft impatience to a curious one, because fo difaftrous to all that hero's family, fo fatal to the city whofe gallant defender he had been, fo final to every hope, and fo ruinous in its whole complexion, that beyond it nothing farther was left for that exalted writer to extend his poem.

'He has done as much as the pen in the hand of Genius could do to croud that grand event into the fmalleft compafs. Scarcely three common pages are employed, in which almost every line, and often words themselves, are a fentence. He has bestowed lefs upon embellishment than ever poet or writer bestowed on the like occafion; for, in fact, every incident and expreffion that Nature and fituation dictated, were themfelves the very quinteffence of embellishment. He has evidently haftened to the principal groupe, in which was centered all the force and dignity and pathos of the fcene; at the fame time that in touching more lightly the introductory and furrounding images, language could not give to each a more pointed selection of expreffion.

Yet what reader does not feel even the language and the dispatch of Homer in this inftance, too flow for the anxiety with which his mind fwells to anticipate all that is untold? We no fooner fee with Caffandra from the tower the aged father returning with his dear fon's remains, but we are eager to behold, before words can tell us, the afflicted throng that bursts in cries from the Trojan gates, to take their last view of their loft protector; but, most of all, to hear the heartrending diftrefs of the widowed Andromache, with her defolate infant, and the maternal lamentatious of the aged Hecuba. We are repaid indeed for waiting the progrefs of the narrative, in the mingled tears of REV. FEB. 1794.

M

the

the generous, grateful Helen, which give us more perhaps than the imagination could have ftretched itself to meet, but which form the finest close to the character of the beloved hero, over whom it is natural indeed that a fond mother and a diftracted wife fhould hang in bitter lamentations: but when Helen weeps for the lofs of that amiable friend, whofe mild and kind deportment towards her, under circumftances which had fhaken the temper of almost every one in Priam's house, was invariable to the last; this gives a finish to the scene, and endears to every reader the univerfally-lamented man, who now becomes not more the darling of his family, and of his country, than the darling of humanity.

But might not all this fcope of detail be embraced by the pencil with the fame effect, nay, with a more abundant one? forafmuch as the whole is caught at once upon the canvas, and abides upon the fenses; whereas in the poem it rifes only in fucceffion, wherein every fucceeding gratification treads out in fome degree the impreffion of that which is gone by. Caffandra on the top of Pergamus, announcing the arrival of the body, and calling to the Trojans-the Trojan throng affembled below-are circumstances which doubtless speak with more variety and glow of expreffion on the canvas than any language can give them. The weeping matrons and the infant around the body are beheld with no lefs ftriking effect. If there is any thing in which the poet may seem to have the advantage over the painter, it is perhaps in that great effort of pathetic, beyond which fobs must choak all farther utterance of the heart-broken Andromache-" O! that thou hadt, in thy laft moments, grasped my hand in thine, and faid fomething which I might have remembered day and night, amidft my tears, for ever!" But why may not Andromache, hanging with streaming eyes over her loft hufband-his hand clafped in her's-her every feature marking affection mingled with agony-the hopeless wifh just ftarting from her lips-fpeak the fame fentiment with the fame eloquence? Even the ftiller grief of friendship in the Grecian Helen is capable of being expreffed by the pencil, and perhaps with a stronger contrast to the more interefting and vehement diftrefs of the two Trojan matrons than the poet has given her; while her's and Hecuba's certainly contribute to form the grand climax of grief, which has its completion in Andromache."

We make no obfervations on these paffages, farther than that the volume is compofed of others nearly refembling them, and that we wish the author had paid more attention to the useful art of choofing and arranging words. We think, alfo, that our fecond quotation would have contained matter of more importance, had the author perufed and profited by the work of the truly philofophical and critical LESSING, entitled Lascoon; which treats on the boundaries of poetry and painting, and affigns to each of thofe arts its diftinct province.

ART.

ART. VI. A Review of Ecclefiaftical Eftablishments in Europe. Containing their Hiftory; with a candid Examination of their Advantages and Disadvantages, both civil and religious: An Attempt to define the Extent of Civil Legiflation, refpecting Ecclefiaftical Objects; with a Difcuffion of the Queftion," Should Religious Tefts be made a Rule of Law, in conferring Civil Rewards, or in inflicting Civil Punishments?" And an Effay tending to fhew both the Political and Moral Neceflity of abolishing exclufive Establishments, with Answers to fome principal Objections. By the Rev. Mr. William Graham, Newcastle. 8vo. pp. 291. 4s. Boards. Glasgow, printed; and fold by Johnson in London. 1792. THAT the prevalence of religious belief is of importance to

the prosperity of a community, can only be queftioned by those who doubt the reality of its influence on the moral conduct of men. It will, therefore, be generally agreed that those inftitutions, which tend to diffufe the knowlege and promote the practice of religion, ought to be encouraged. The great difficulty is to determine in what manner this encouragement fhould be given. The ufual policy of ftatefmen has hitherto been to felect fome one of the numerous fects of Chriftians as the object of public patronage, and to connect all ecclefiaftical honours and rewards with the profeffion of a certain creed, and the obfervance of a certain formulary. Whether this fyftem has been adopted from the confcientious motive of fupporting what the magiftrate has judged to be the true faith; or from the political confideration that fuch ex lufive privileges would be more likely to create a powerful tereft in favour of government, than an undiftinguishing protection of common rights; it has never failed, fince it was introduced, to meet with many ingenious and able advocates, whofe experimental conviction of its utility has infpired them with zeal in its theoretical defence. Others, however, who have not had the fame opportunity of illumination on this fubject with the members of the ecclefiaftical incorporation, viewing things under a different aspect, have fallen into the opinion that a partial diftribution of bounties is no lefs injudicious in religion than in any other public concern; and that the only way of rendering religion beneficial, without being injurious, to the ftate, is to give equal countenance and protection, and equal fupport, to all the forms under which the various opinions and humours of men may exhibit it, without establishing any kind of religious monopoly.

This is the ground on which Mr. Graham takes his stand in the prefent work. The queftion which he proposes to difcufs is, Whether a legiflature ought to incorporate any diftinct defcription of Chriftians, and ally it to the political constitution, by making with it the exclufive condition of enjoying civil and ecclefiafti

M 2..

cal