Calloph. I admire your Taste in Landskip extremely; you have marked out just such Circumstances as would take me most in a View. I am I find almost as enthusiastic a Lover of Nature as you are. Yet tho' I can allow her to have an excellent Fancy, I do not think she has the best Judgment. Tho' Nature is an admirable Colourist, her Composition is very often liable to Censure. For which Reason I am for having her placed under the Direction of Art: And the Rule I would go by should be Mr. Pope's;
—Treat the Goddess like a modest Fair, Not over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare.
Suppose, therefore, we leave your romantic Nature, and continue our View of her here, where she is treated according to this Prescription of the Poet.——That Building is called the Temple of Contemplation; those Bas-relief Heads it is adorned with, are, I assure you, extremely good ones.
Polypth. Pray, Sir, what kind of a Building have we yonder, that struck our Sight as we crossed that Alley?
Calloph. We will walk up to it if you please: It is a Chinese House.
Polypth. A mighty whimsical Appearance it makes truly.
Calloph. In my Opinion it is a pretty Object enough, and varies our View in a very becoming manner. Its cool stand upon the Lake, and those canvas Windows, designed as well to keep out the Sun, as let in the Air, give us a good Notion of the Manner of living in an hot Country. It is finely painted in the Inside: Will you look into it?
Polypth. Finely painted indeed! Our Travellers tell us the Chinese are a very ingenious People; and that Arts and Sciences flourish amongst them in great Beauty. But for my Part, whenever I see any of their Paintings, I am apt, I must confess, in every thing else to call their Taste into question. It is impossible for one Art to be in Perfection, without introducing the rest. They are all Links of the same Chain: If you draw up one, you must expect the rest will follow. Cognoscitur ex socio, is an old Rule you know in judging of Men; and I believe it may be applied with as much Propriety in judging of Arts. It is hardly to be imagined that any Art, perfect in its Kind, would claim any Kindred, or even bear to keep Company with such a wretched Art of Painting as prevails amongst the Chinese: Its whole Mystery consists in dawbing on glaring Colours: Correctness of Drawing, Beauty of Composition, and Harmony of colouring, they seem not to have even the least Notion of.
Calloph. I like your Reflections extremely. We should certainly have some more elegant Productions from China, if they were able to answer the Character I have sometimes heard given of them. They have very little of true, manly Taste, I fancy, among them: Their Ingenuity lies chiefly in the knick-knack Way; and is, I imagine, pretty much of the Dutch Kind.——Hold, Sir: This Way if you please. We will walk again towards the River, and pursue it to the Canal.——It is divided, you see, into three Parts; one takes its Rise from the Grotto; another from the Pebble Bridge (as it is called) which is, I think, a pretty Object; and the third issues from a dark Wood.——There, Sir, let me present you to an illustrious set of your gallant Countrymen. This Place is called the Temple of British Worthies; and is gloriously filled, you see, with the greatest Wits, Patriots, and Heroes, that are to be met with in our Chronicles.