Painting and Poesy are two sisters, &c. It is a received truth, that the arts have a certain relation to each other. “There is no art, (said Tertullian, in his Treatise of Idolatry,) which is not either the father, or the near relation of another.” And Cicero, in his oration for Archias the poet, says, “That the arts, which have respect to human life, have a kind of alliance amongst themselves, and hold each other (as we may say) by the hand.” But those arts, which are the nearest related, and claim the most ancient kindred with each other, are painting and poetry; and whosoever shall thoroughly examine them, will find them so much resembling one another, that he cannot take them for less than sisters. They both follow the same bent, and suffer themselves to be rather carried away, than led by their secret inclinations, which are so many seeds of the Divinity. “There is a god within us, (says Ovid, in the beginning of his sixth book _De Fastis_, there speaking of the poets,) who by his agitation warms us.” And Suidas says, “That the famous sculptor Phidias, and Zeuxis that incomparable painter, were both of them transported by the same enthusiasm which gave life to all their works.” They both of them aim at the same end, which is imitation. Both of them excite our passions, and we suffer ourselves willingly to be deceived, both by the one and by the other; our eyes and souls are so fixed to them, that we are ready to persuade ourselves, that the painted bodies breathe, and that the fictions are truths. Both of them are set on fire by the great actions of heroes; and both endeavour to eternize them. Both of them, in short, are supported by the strength of their imagination, and avail themselves of those licences, which Apollo has equally bestowed on them, and with which their genius has inspired them: _——“Pictoribus atque poetis_ _Quidlibet audendi, semper fuit æqua potestas.”_ “Painters and poets, free from servile awe, May treat their subjects, and their objects draw.” As Horace tells us, in his “Art of Poetry.” The advantage which painting possesses above poesy is this; that, amongst so great a diversity of languages, she makes herself understood by all the nations of the world; and that she is necessary to all other arts, because of the need which they have of demonstrative figures, which often give more light to the understanding than the clearest discourses we can make: _“Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem,_ _Quam quæ sunt oculis commissa fidelibus.”_ “Hearing excites the mind by slow degrees; The man is warmed at once by what he sees.” Horace in the same “Art of Poetry.” [*†9.]