bligation to take some Care of her
Interests.

'The Honour of our Country is also concerned in the matter I am going
to lay before you: we (and perhaps other Nations as well as we) have a
National false Humility as well as a National Vain-Glory; and tho' we
boast our selves to excel all the World in things wherein we are
out-done abroad, in other things we attribute to others a Superiority
which we our selves possess. This is what is done, particularly, in
the Art of _Portrait_ or _Face-Painting_.

'_Painting_ is an Art of a vast Extent, too great by much for any
mortal Man to be in full possession of, in all its Parts; 'tis enough
if any one succeed in painting Faces, History, Battels, Landscapes,
Sea-Pieces, Fruit, Flowers, or Drolls, &c. Nay, no Man ever was
excellent in all the Branches (tho' [many [3]] in Number) of these
several Arts, for a distinct Art I take upon me to call every one of
those several Kinds of Painting.

'And as one Man may be a good Landscape-Painter, but unable to paint a
Face or a History tollerably well, and so of the rest; one Nation may
excel in some kinds of Painting, and other kinds may thrive better in
other Climates.

'_Italy_ may have the Preference of all other Nations for
History-Painting; _Holland_ for Drolls, and a neat finished Manner of
Working; _France_, for Gay, Janty, Fluttering Pictures; and _England_
for Portraits: but to give the Honour of every one of these kinds of
Painting to any one of those Nations on account of their Excellence in
any of these parts of it, is like adjudging the Prize of Heroick,
Dramatick, Lyrick or Burlesque Poetry, to him who has done well in any
one of them.

'Where there are the greatest Genius's, and most Helps and
Encouragements, 'tis reasonable to suppose an Art will arrive to the
greatest Perfection: By this Rule let us consider our own Country with
respect to Face-Painting. No Nation in the World delights so much in
having their own, or Friends, or Relations Pictures; whether from
their National Good-Nature, or having a love to Painting, and not
being encouraged in the great Article of Religious Pictures, which the
Purity of our Worship refuses the free use of, or from whatever other
Cause. Our Helps are not inferior to those of any other People, but
rather they are greater; for what the Antique Statues and Bas-reliefs
which _Italy_ enjoys are to the History-Pai