Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Dear Sir,

THE

October the 6th.

HE marriage of our friend must be my excufe for no fooner acknowledging fo kind a letter as I about that time received from you. But really, as private and as little to do as there was done in it, yet it gave me more business than I expected. You must long ere this know, that his lady is a daughter of Mr. Ewer of Hertfordshire, where that family have been feated ever fince Henry the Seventh's time. I gave you, I remember, a pretty full account of all but her name in my letter; fo that I will only now fay of it, that I believe no man ever had a wife, that his own life and happiness would go on more the fame, and undisturbed in all parts of it, than he has. My Lord, by going too foon unto his Reygate houfe, got a fevere cold; but he's fo perfectly recovered as to be much better than I have feen him in fome years past. You would now be as much rejoiced, and indeed furprifed, to fee the good figns of health in him, as you were concerned in feeing him last at Chelsea. The change is fo great, that I do not doubt but the public too, one way or other, will have good figns of it. My Lord Treasurer has moft kindly writ to congratulate him; and my Lord has writ a letter in anfwer, with more perfonal honour and efteem than I am fure he ever writ a minister before. By the way, now I am fpeaking of compliments, on this occafion I hear a certain perfon at your Lord Lieutenant's gave a pretty odd account of the lady, or rather of my Lord, by faying the was far from being young. Indeed, if that had been wanting in any match, it would have made it a fad affair. But he is but twenty. So I cannot but fancy fome odd wrong perfon must have been named for him; or is it not a feature of the old leaven, a breaking out of fome old Whiggifm, for paft fins committed that can never be forgiven? And this was more ftrange, to make fuch a deliberate act of his, and that he was fo difficult to be brought to pafs for a fudden rafh one, when youth was also taken away. But fome are fo keen and envious of characters, as to be

A: Lord Wharton's.

fometimes pretty prepofterous in their fchemes to defame by. My Lord is now with me, and enjoins me to give you his most faithful refpe&ts and thanks for all your kind concern and good wishes. I am with unfeigned refpect and fincerity, dear Sir, your most faithful, obedient, humble fervant.

LETTER XCV.

Lord Shaftesbury to Lord ** [Sent with the Notion of the Hiftorical Draught of the Judgment of Hercules.]

My Lord,

TH

letter comes to your Lordship, intitled A Notion: for fuch alone can accompanied with a fmall writing that piece defervedly be called, which afpires no higher than to the forming of fcience as painting. But whatever the a project, and that too in fo vulgar a fubject be, if it can prove any way entertaining to you, it will fufficiently anhave that good fuccefs, I fhould have no fwer my defign. And if poffibly it may ordinary opinion of my project, fince I know how hard it would be to give your thing which was not in some respect worLordship a real entertainment by any thy and ufeful.

On this account I muft by way of preter I had conceived my Notion, fuch as vention inform your Lordship, that aftented with this, but fell directly to you fee it upon paper, I was not conwork, and by the hand of a master-painter brought it into practice, and formed refolved afterwards to fee what effect it a real defign. This was not enough. I would have, when taken out of mere black-and-white into colours; and thus

a sketch was afterwards drawn.

This

pleafed fo well, that being encouraged by the virtuoft, who are fo eminent in this part of the world, I refolved at last to engage my painter in the great work. Immediately a cloth was bespoke of a fuitable dimenfion, and the figures taken as big or bigger than the common life; the subject being of the heroic kind, and requiring rather fuch figures as fhould appear above ordinary human ftature.

Thus my Notion, as light as it may prove in the treatife, is become very subftantial in the workmanship. The piece.

is ftill in hand, and like to continue fo for fome time. Otherwife the first draught or defign fhould have accompanied the treatife, as the treatife does this letter. But the defign having grown thus into a fketch, and the fketch afterwards into a picture, I thought it fit your Lordihip fhould either fee the feveral pieces together, or be troubled only with that which was the best, as undoubtedly the great one must prove, if the mafter I employ finks not very much below himself in this performance.

Far furely fhould I be, my Lord, from conceiving any vanity or pride in amufements of fuch an inferior kind as thefe, efpecially were they fuch as they may naturally at first fight appear. I pretend not here to apologize either for them or for myfelf. Your Lordship however knows I have naturally ambition enough to make me defirous of employing myfelf in bufinefs of a higher order; fince it has been my fortune in public affairs to act often in concert with you, and in the fame views, on the intereft of Europe and mankind. There was a time, and that a very early one of my life, when I was not wanting to my country in this refpect. But after fome years of hearty labour and pains in this kind of workmanship, an unhappy breach in my health drove me not only from the feat of business, but forced me to feck these foreign climates; where, as mild as the winters generally are, I have with much ado lived out this latter one; and am now, as your Lordship finds, employing myself in fuch easy ftudies as are moit fuitable to my state of health, and to the genius of the country where I am confined.

This in the mean time I can with fome affurance fay to your Lordship in a kind of fpirit of prophefy, from what I have obferved of the rifing genius of our nation, that if we live to fee a peace any way anfwerable to that generous fpirit with which this war was begun, and carriod on for our own liberty and that of Europe, the figure we are like to make abroad, and the increase of knowledge, industry and fenfe at home, will render united Britain the principal feat of arts; and, by her politenefs and advantages in this kind, will fhew evidently how much The owes to thofe counfels which taught her to exert herfelf fo refolutely in behalf

of the common cause, and that of her own
liberty and happy constitution neceffarily
included.

in refpect of mufic, our reigning tafte was
I can myself remember the time when
The long reign of luxury and pleature
in many degrees inferior to the French.
under King Charles the Second, and the
foreign helps and studied advantages
given to mufic in a following reign,
could not raise our genius the leat in this
refpect. But when the fpirit of the na-
gaged at that time in the fierceft war,
tion was grown more free, though en-
and with the moft doubtful fuccefs, we
mufic, and inquire what Italy in parti-
no fooner began to turn ourfelves towards
outstripped our neighbours the French,
cular produced, than in an inftant we
entered into a genius far beyond theirs,
and raifed ourfelves an ear and judg
ment not inferior to the best now in the
world.

Though we have as yet nothing of our In the fame manner as to painting. being mentioned, yet fince the public has own native growth in this kind worthy of gravings, drawings, copyings, and for of late begun to exprefs a relifh for enthe original paintings of the chief Italian fchools (fo contrary to the modern French), I doubt not that in very few years we fhall make an equal progrefs mour turns us to cultivate thefe defigning in this other fcience. And when our huarts, our genius, I am perfuaded, will naturally carry us over the lighter amule ments, and lead us to that higher, more ferious and noble part of imitation, which relates to hiftory, human nature, and the chief degree or order of beauty; I mean merely vegetable and fenfible, as in anithat of the rational life, diftinct from the mals or plants; according to thofe feveral degrees or orders of painting which extemporary Notion I have fent you. your Lordship will find fuggefted in this

fo many noble defigns of this kind have As for architecture, it is no wonder if mifcarried amongst us, fince the genius of our nation has hitherto been fo little turned this way, that through feveral reigns we have patiently feen the noblest public buildings perifh (if I may fay fo) under the hand of one fingle court-architect; who, if he had been able to profit by experience, would long fince, at our expence, have proved the greateft

mafter

mafter in the world. But I queftion whether our patience is like to hold much longer. The devaftation fo long committed in this kind, has made us begin to grow rude and clamorous at the hearing of a new palace spoiled, or a new design committed to fome rafh or impotent pretender.

It is the good fate of our nation in this particular, that there remain yet two of the nobleft fubjects for architecture; our Prince's palace and our Houfe of Parliament. For I cannot but fancy that when Whitehall is thought of, the neighbouring Lords and Commons will at the fame time be placed in better chambers and apartments than at prefent; were it only for Majefty's fake, and as a magnificence becoming the perfon of the Prince, who here appears in full folemnity. Nor do I fear that when thefe new fubjects are attempted, we fhould mifcarry as grofsly as we have done in others before. Our ftate in this refpect, may prove perhaps more fortunate than our church, in having waited till a national tafle was formed before these edifices were undertaken. But the zeal of the nation could not, it feems, admit fo long a delay in their ecclefiaitical ftructures, particulary their metropolitan. And fince a zeal of this fort has been newly kindled amongst us, it is like we thall fee from afar the many fpires arif ing in our great city, with fuch haily and fudden growth, as may be the occafion perhaps that our immediate relish fhall be hereafter cenfured, as retaining much of what artis call the Gothic kind.

Hardly, indeed, as the public now ftands, should we bear to fee a Whitehall treated like a Hampton Court, or even a new cathedral like St. Paul's. Almost every one now becomes concerned, and intereits himself in fuch public structures. Even those pieces too are brought under the common cenfure, which, though raffed by private men, are of fucha grandeur and magnificence as to become national ornaments. The ordinary man may build his cottage, or the plain gentleman his country houfe, according as he fancies; but when a great man builds, he will find little quarter from the public, if, instead of a beautiful pile, he raises at a vaft expence fuch a falfe and counterfeit piece of magnificence, as can be justly arraigned for its deformity by fo inany

knowing men in art, and by the whole people, who, in fuch a conjuncture, readily follow their opinion.

In reality the people are no fmall parties in this caufe. Nothing moves fuccefsfully without them. There can be no public, but where they are included. And without a public voice, knowingly guided and directed, there is nothing which can raise a true ambition in the artist; nothing which can exalt the genius of the workman, or make him emulous of after-fame, and of the approbation of his country and of pofterity. For with thefe, he naturally as a freeman must take part; in thefe he has a paffionate concern and intereft raised in him, by the fame genius of liberty, the fame laws and government, by which his property and the rewards of his pains and industry are fecured to him, and to his generation after him.

Every thing co-operates in fuch a state towards the improvement of art and fcience. And for the defigning arts in particular, fuch as architecture, painting, and ftatuary, they are in a manner linked together. The tafte of one kind brings neceffarily that of the others alor g with it. When the free spirit of a nation turns itfelf this way, judgments are formed; critics arife; the public eye and ear improve; a right tafte prevails, and in a manner forces its way. Nothing is fo improving, nothing fo natural, fo congenial to the liberal arts as that reigning liberty and high fpirit of a people, which from the habit of judging in the highest matters for themselves, makes them freely judge of other fubjects, and enter thoroughly into the characters as well of men and manners, as of the products or works of men in art and science. So much, my Lord, do we owe to the excellence of our national conftitution and legal monarchy; happily fitted for us, and which alone could hold together fo mighty a people; all fharers (though at fo far a ditance from each other) in the government of themselves, and meeting under one head in one vait metropolis, whofe enormous growth, however cenfurable in other refpects, is actually a caufe that workmanship and arts of fo many kinds arife to fuch perfection.

What encouragement our higher powers may think fit to give thefe growing arts, I will not pretend to gucis. This I

Ff

[ocr errors]

know,

know, that it is fo much for their advantage and intereft to make themfelves the chief parties in the caufe, that I wish no court or miniftry, besides a truly virtuous and wife one, may ever concern themselves in the affair. For fhould they do fo, they would in reality do more harm than good; fince it is not the nature of a court (fuch as courts generally are) to improve, but rather corrupt a tafte. And what is in the beginning fet wrong by their example, is hardly ever afterwards recoverable in the genius of a nation.

Content therefore I am, my Lord, that Britain ftands in this refpect as the now does. Nor can one, methinks, with juft reafon regret her having hitherto made no greater advancement in thefe affairs of art. As her conftitution has grown, and been established, fhe has in proportion fitted herfelf for other improvements. There has been no anticipation in the cafe. And in this furely The must be efteemed wife, as well as happy; that ere fhe attempted to raise herself any other tafte or relish, the fecured herself a right one in government. She has now the advantage of beginning in other matters on a new foot. She has her models yet to feek, her fcale and ftandard to form with deliberation and good choice. Able enough the is at prefent to fhift for herfelf, however abandoned or helpless fhe has been left by those whom it became to aflift her. Hardly, indeed, could fhe procure a fingle academy for the training of her youth in exercises. As good foldiers as we are, and as good horfes as our climate affords, our princes, rather than expend their treafure this way, have fuffered our youth to pafs into a foreign nation to learn to ride. As for other academies, fuch as thofe for painting, fculpture, or architecture, we have not fo much as heard of the propofal; whilst the prince of our rival nation raifes academies, breeds youth, and fends rewards and penfions into foreign countries, to advance the interest and credit of his own. Now if, notwithflanding the industry and pains of this foreign court, and the fupine unconcernedness of our own, the national tafte however rifes, and already fhews itfelf in many refpects beyond that of our fo highly-aflitted neighbours; what greater proof can there be of the fupe

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]

no perfon to be received under "the age of twenty-five. A thousand "livres penfion for each scholar-"able mafters to be appointed for teaching them the neceffary fciences, and instructing them in the treaties of peace and alliances, which have been formerly made the members to "affemble three times a week —— c'eft "de ce feminaire (fays the writer) qu'en "tirera les fecretaires d'ambaffade; qui par degrez pourront monter a de plas "hauts emplois."

[ocr errors]

I must confefs, my Lord, as great an admirer as I am of these regular inftitutions, I cannot but look upon an academy for minifters as a very extraor dinary establishment: especially in such a monarchy as France, and at fuch a conjuncture as the prefent. It looks as if the minifters of that court had discovered lately fome new methods of negotiation, fuch as their predeceffors Richlieu and Mazarine never thought of; or that, ca the contrary, they have found themselves fo declined, and at fuch a lofs in the management of this prefent treaty, as to be forced to take their leffon from fome of thofe minifters with whom they treat: a reproach of which, no doubt, they must be highly fenfible.

But it is not my defign here to enter tain your Lordihip with any reflections upon politics, or the methods which the French may take to raise themfelves new minifters or new generals; who may prove a better match for us than hitherto, whilft we held our old. I will only fay to your Lordship on this fubject of aci demies, that indeed I have less concern for the deficiency of fuch a one as this, than of any other which could be thought of for England; and that as for a feminary of statefmen, I doubt not but, without this extraordinary help, we thal be able, out of our old flock, and the common courfe of bufinefs, conftantly to furnifh a fufficient number of well-qualified perfons to ferve upon occafion, either at

JI

bome

home or in our foreign treaties, as often as fuch perfons accordingly qualified fhall duly, honeftly, and bona fide be required to ferve.

ence;

It was

I return therefore to my virtuofo fciwhich being my chief amufement in this place and circumftance, your Lordship has by it a fresh inftance that I can never employ my thoughts with fatisfaction on any fubject, without making you a party. For even this very Notion had its rife chiefly from the conversation of a certain day which I had the happinefs to pass a few years fince in the country with your Lordship. there you fhewed me fome engravings which had been fent you from Italy. One in particular I well remember; of which the fubject was the very fame with that of my written Notion enclosed. But by what hand it was done, or after what mafter, or how executed, I have quite forgot. It was the fummer feafon, when you had recefs from bufinefs. And I have accordingly calculated this epiftle and project for the fame recess and leifure. For by the time this can reach England, the fpring will be far ad

vanced, and the national affairs in a

manner over with those who are not in the immediate administration.

Were that indeed your Lordship's lot at prefent, I know not whether, in regard to my country, I fhould dare throw fach amufements as thefe in your way. Yet even in this cafe, I would venture to fay however, in defence of my project, and of the cause of painting, that could my young hero come to your Lordship as well reprefented as he might have been, either by the hand of a Marat or a Jordano (the matters who were in being, and in repute, when I first travelled here in Italy), the picture itself, whatever the treatise proved, would have been worth notice, and might have become a prefent worthy of our court, and prince's palace, especially were it fo bleffed as to lodge within it a royal iffue of her majesty's. Such a piece of furhiture might well fit the gallery, or hall of exercifes, where our young princes And to fhould learn their ufual leffons. fee Virtue in this garb and action, might perhaps be no flight memorandum hereafter to a royal youth, who should one day come to undergo this trial himself; on which his own happiness, as well as

the fate of Europe and the world, would
in fo great a measure depend.

This, my Lord, is making (as you
fee) the moft I can of my project, and
fetting off my amufements with the best
be the
colour I am able; that I
may
more excufable in communicating them
to your Lordship, and expreffing thus,
with what zeal I am, my Lord, your
Lordship's most faithful humble fervant,
Naples, March 6,
N. S. 1712.

LETTER XCVI.
Extract of a letter from the Earl of Shaftef-
bury to Thomas Stringer *, Esq.

London, Feb. 15, 1695.
WILL not trouble you any farther now,

nor indeed have I time. We have
got a bill to be engroffed, which lays an
incapacity on the elector (as the late
paffed act does on the elected) in cafe of
corruption, meat, drink, &c. and which
obliges the knights of the fhire to have
500l. a year, or the inheritance of it, as
freehold within the county, and a burgess
2001. a year fomewhere at least in Enge
land on the fame terms. You could, I
believe, fcarcely imagine with yourself,
who these are in the world, or who they
are in the houfe, who oppofe this, and all
other fuch bills as this, might and main,
and who they are that are condemned of
flying in the face of the government, as
they call it, by being for fuch things as
thefe are, and preffing fuch hard things
on the prerogative or court. In fhort,
you would hardly believe that your
poor friend, that now writes to you,
has fentence (and bitter fentence too)
every day paffing upon him, for going
as you may be fure he goes, and ever will
80, on fuch occafions as thefe; whatever
party it be that is in or out at court,
that is in the poffeffion of the places, and
afraid of lofing their daily bread by not
being fervile enough, or that are out of
places, and think, by crolling the court,
and fiding with good and popular things
against it, to get into thofe places of pro-
fit and management. No more. My
kind fervice to Mrs. Stringer, and my
fervice too to your fon. I am your fin-
cere friend, &c.

A gentleman who had held an office under the
Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury,
Ffz

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »