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in tune, and those which are not; and tho many of the hearers know not the reason, yet, their displeasure is vifible in their faces, whenever that accident happens in a piece of mufic, which has before given them delight.

HOWEVER excellent this fenfe of hearing may be in the natives of this island, even in the defcendants of the original inhabitants, as I remarked in my journey into Wales; it is manifeft that the accuracy of the visual difcernment is not to be compared with that of the French, neither men or women prefent themselves with that grace, which is spread over all the behaviour of both fexes in Paris; they neither dance or move with fuch eafe and dignity; one degenerates into flippant, and the other fwells into burlefque for this reason this island has not bred fine dancers, either among men or women.

3

THAT excellence depends on the perfection of the eye-fight, and is totally directed by that fenfe; it may be conceived that motions in dancing, as they are accommodated to mufic, the dancer ought to be a judge of that alfo, and have

a nice ear; this indeed, is true, but then it depends on the knowing the time of the compofition, and not difcerning the inftrument's being in tune; a musician may be a moft excellent timist, and the hearer a good judge of that part, tho' the first plays the whole air out of tune, and the dancer knows nothing of the difference.

To this defect of visual powers may it not be affigned, that England has not yet produced a good painter, no one amongst them having been remarkable (I mean a native) for either drawing or colouring well?

EVEN the fole man of great invention amongst the painters, has been fomewhat deficient in drawing and colouring: tho' his fanfy has been luxuriant and juft, yet the other parts, which depend on the perfection of the sense of feeing, have been unequal to that of the imagination.

THESE natural and original defects may probably prevent the English from ever having excellent painters amongst the natives, and the French from producing exquifite musicians.

Το

To what other caufe can it be afcribed, that tho' the fame mental powers have fhewn themfelves in their writings of fanfy, which are neceffary to make excellent painters and musicians, that thofe artists are yet unproduced amongst the natives of this ifle and that kingdom? I am,

Your most obedient fervant.

LET

LETTER XXXIX.

To the Reverend Father CURTIO MARINELLI at Rome.

I

Dear Sir,

T is not in thefe maxims alone which I laft

fent you, that the minifterial part of this kingdom imitates the Venetian policy; befides the toleration, not to say the encouragement given to gallantry, and contemning the clergy, there is yet one other scandal belonging to that state, which is publicly encouraged in this.

THIS is the countenancing that poisonous and pernicious race of informers, a fet of men juftly detefted by all preceding nations; beings which are engendered from the rottennefs of a peoples morals, and a minister's nefarious schemes, like monsters in the mud of Nilus, or snakes in dung and putrefaction.

INDEED, every one is too fenfible that fuch hyæna-beings have ever exifted, and been employed in all kingdoms, particularly towards their decline; but that they fhould be publicly known,

and

and then openly and honourably remunerated, is an inftance unexemplified in any virtuous nation ancient or modern.

INDEED, in London there are no heads of wood as at Venice, into which informations may be conveyed, excepting thofe of the adminiftration, and these are of that wood out of which a ftatuary would be egregiously puzzled to make a Mercury.

THERE are fome inftances, when informa tion becomes a virtue; the flave that overheard the designs of the fons of the elder Brutus, to fubvert the government and restore the Tarquins to Rome; the difcoverers of the Catali nian confpiracy; each deferved public thanks, and honourable remuneration: the importance of the discovery erafed the blackness of the heart, which generally attends fuch degenerate beings; a virtuous man even might have done this.

Bur in trivial affairs, fuch as the inadver tent and unbecoming expreffions of three intoxi cated 'boys, where no danger could attend the