a degree of knowledge which will assist your judgment to discriminations more intelligent, and consequently more pleasurable, than can be made by a judgment wholly uninformed.

An acquaintance with the theory even of that part of architecture which belongs to the fine arts, will not, I think, repay a young lady for the toil of study. But there are general principles which govern the proportion and arrangement of parts to a whole, and of the whole to the production of a certain effect, adapted in character to the purpose of the edifice, with the selection and style of ornament; and these your pupil should understand. The knowledge will introduce her to another source of the pleasures of cultivated taste, give her advantage of intelligence in contemplating the magnificent erections of her own and other lands, and assist her in depicting architectural subjects, and in understanding the representation of them by others.

Even to this very slight acquaintanee with the art, it will be necessary that she understand its more general terms, and distinguish its several orders and styles. With these a more technical acquaintance will do her no good. To know the application of a certain term as distinctive of a certain object or style of arrangement, will neither improve her intelligence nor her taste. Order in architecture is what organization is in animal nature—an assemblage of parts, subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office each has to perform. The Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite, are not mere names applied to columns formed on a certain plan, and enriched by certain ornaments. Each has its distinguishing features, expressing the several characters of strength, grace, ele

gance, lightness, or richness, which are not to be looked for in the column alone, but pervade the whole building of which the column is the regulator. As from a single bone of an animal whose race has been long extinct, a skilful anatomist will deduce his complete dimensions and prevailing characteristics; so from a given part of any column a skilful architect will determine the complete configuration of the edifice.

The principles which determine that particular forms and dimensions give due proportion, and which direct the combination of parts to the expression of harmonious character, are not arbitrary. They have their archetypes in nature, or their foundations in reason; and it is by studying the grounds of their selection, and the nature of their adaptation, that architecture contributes to intelligence of mind and refinement of taste.

Your pupil should be acquainted with the history of the progress of painting, sculpture, and architecture; and know something of the eminent men, whose genius has been instrumental in bringing them to their present state of advancement, and the several departments of the arts for which we are respectively indebted to them. She should mark the character of the nations who have excelled in these arts, the periods at which they have pre-eminently flourished, and the influences by which they have been encouraged. Such an examination of the development and growth of art is scarcely less interesting than an inquiry into the history of literature and learned men.

Dancing, though properly enumerated among the fine arts, takes a very low position on the list. Its object is to prescribe graceful attitudes and movements,

adapted to exhibit the various beauties of the human form, and gratify a natural taste in the love of intricacy, or of involved movements, which lead the eye a kind of chace in pursuit of the object it follows. A number of young persons treading with light and graceful step the mazes prescribed in its different forms, is a sight which the eye of taste cannot look upon without enjoyment, and it affords a healthful and exhilarating recreation to those engaged. But the art is incapable of furnishing any theoretic principles, or scientific basis, by which the mind may be informed. An agreeable mode of bodily exercise, and pleasant recreation for the passing hour, are the highest of its ends.

You would probably charge me with great absurdity if I should give penmanship and needle-work a place in a letter dedicated to the fine arts; yet, improvement in taste should improve the style of execution in these departments, and in many other performanees, which the hand has to execute, and the eye to judge. A free, clear, legible, graceful style of penmanship should result from the command of hand, and the judgment of lines, acquired by the practice of drawing. And if fitness, variety, and uniformity, enter into the essential elements of the beautiful, the labours of the needle afford scope for the exhibition of these qualities. I do not now refer to embroidery. I confess that, in this department of the needle's operations, I see very little that does not torture rather than gratify my taste, and make me mourn over the misapplication of time, and labour, and skill, which have been expended on the production of results so very unsatisfactory as far as representation is concerned. No, I refer at present to the execution of plain needle-work, and I would urge

you to stimulate your pupils to the attainment of the highest degree of excellence in its accomplishment, and never to endure any work of this kind, in which the principles of fitness and uniformity are violated. The cultivation of a refined taste is valuable to a young lady, not for her own sake only, nor only as it enables her to gratify others by the interest of her conversation, and the practice of her acquirements; but also, as giving superiority to her mode of accomplishing the thousand daily recurring acts and arrangements, by which she is called upon to contribute very materially to the comfort and enjoyment of domestic life.

Yours, &c.

LETTER XIX.

ANCIENT CLASSICS.

MY DEAR M, Many exhibitions of human genius and intelligence, of all ages and of all climes, are open to us, and they ever inspire a strong interest in the beholder. Narrations of the habits and pursuits of ancient or unknown nations never fail to be heard with attention; and specimens of their implements of industry, or of the arts in which they have excelled, are always looked upon with curiosity. Whether we recognise in these things indications of an inferior state of civilization, or of a state which is highly exalted, the fact is universal, that the productions of distant and unknown nations are looked upon with a high degree of interest. And what is the foundation of this feeling? It is a desire to be acquainted with our species, to know the various conditions in which they exist, the arts they pursue, the pleasures they seek; and the act of mind which immediately succeeds is that of comparison or contrast with our own.

Sir Joshua Reynolds remarks, in one of his lectures at the Royal Academy, that he who is acquainted with the works which pleased different ages and different countries, has more materials and more means of knowing what is analogous to the mind of man, than he who is conversant only with the works of his own age or country. This is true not only of the arts of painting