to
beauty of style than Chinese productions of a similar kind.

_Distorted_, having a bad figure.

_Perspective_, the science by which things are represented
in a picture according to their appearance to the eye.

Who are the Japanese?

The inhabitants of Japan, an empire of Eastern Asia, composed of
several large islands. They are so similar in feature, and in many of
their customs and ceremonies, to the Chinese, as to be regarded by
some, as the same race of men. The Japanese language is so very
peculiar, that it is rarely understood by the people of other
nations. Their religion is idolatrous; their government a monarchy,
controlled by the priesthood. The people are very ingenious, and the
arts and sciences are held in great esteem by them. In all respects,
Japan is an important and interesting empire.

_Monarchy_, a government in which the power is vested in a
king or emperor.

By what nations was the art of painting practised with great success?

By the Greeks and Romans. Greece produced many distinguished painters,
among whom Apelles was one of the most celebrated; he was a native of
Cos, an island in the Archipelago, rather north of Rhodes; he
flourished in the time of Alexander the Great, and witnessed both the
glory and the decay of ancient art: the leading features of his style
were beauty and grace. But painting was not at any period so
completely national in Greece, as sculpture, its sister art; the names
of one hundred and sixty-nine eminent sculptors are recorded, while
only fifteen painters are mentioned. Zeuxis, of Heraclea, was another
famous Greek painter, who flourished 400 years before Christ. The
Romans were not without considerable masters in this art, in the
latter times of the republic, and under the first emperors.

What nation is supposed to have known and practised this art even
before the foundation of Rome?

The Etruscans, inhabitants of Etruria, whose acquaintance with the
arts has excited great astonishment among those who have most deeply
searched into their history, and traced their progress by means of the
beautiful specimens of their works still extant. Their early works
were not superior to those of other nations; but either from their
intercourse with Greece, or the original genius of the people, they
had attained considerable eminence in the arts of painting, sculpture,
&c., before Rome was founded. Pliny speaks of some beautiful pictures