the terms of art into scriptural phraseology; but we venture to assert
that much national good is likely to result from these advances of
art, and its constant introduction into all our amusements. That it
promotes the growth of virtue is too old an axiom to be refuted:

----Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes
Emollit mores, nec sinit esse feros.

"The Italians commonly call a taste for the fine arts, or skill in
them, by the name of Virtue. They term the productions of artists
objects of virtue; and a person who has a taste for such things is
denominated _a virtuoso_, that is, a virtuous man." Such is the
language of the _Edinburgh Review_, in commencing an article on a
recently-published translation of Lanzi's _History of Painting in
Italy_, in six octavo volumes--and what a delightful relief is this
from the party declamations which usually occupy so large a portion of
that "critical journal." But this is not singular, for it is now no
uncommon thing to see a large letter column of a newspaper, and a
similar proportion of a printed sheet published at twopence, alike
occupied by "the Fine Arts."

Patronage, royal and noble, has already achieved much for painting,
and even the _reported_ project for a National Gallery does much to
foster the art. It keeps the study afloat and uppermost in the public
mind; and the immense increase of exhibitions, not only in London, but
in provincial towns, serves to prove that patronage now consists in
something more substantial than tutelar notice, and unpaid promises.
Artists need no longer journey to the metropolis to find sale for
their works, for their genius is nourished on its native soil by the
liberality and good taste which abound in the neighbourhood of every