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elegantly defined as the offspring of Fiction & Love. Men of learning have amused themselves with tracing the épocha of Romances; but that erudition is desperate which would fix the inventor of the first Romance; for, what originates in Nature, who shall hope to detect the shadowy outlines of its beginning?"

The hackneyed story of the Corinthian Maid who traced on a wall the profile shadow of her lovers face, which her father, who was a Potter, filled up with clay, & modelled to the likeness,—if this be only the fiction of love, it [[strikethrough]] gives a [[/strikethrough]] ascribes a commendable origin to painting and Sculpture, by connecting it with the best feelings of humanity. The same love, the same propensity to imitate, the same emulation to excel, have always operated in a similar manner in giving birth and maturity to Art.

It was a long while the opinion of the learned that the Ancient Greeks & Romans, excellent as they were in Architecture & Sculpture, were quite inferior in Painting, and knew nothing of perspective, grouping or coloring. This judgment was founded upon the few paintings which time had

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had spared for our inspection, and seemed to be confined by the more recent disclosures which were brought to light in Pompeii. Yet Artists themselves, I believe, have generally agreed, notwithstanding that nothing had been discovered in positive evidence, that the Painters of Greece, from the necessary connection of the Arts, must have been at least equal to her Sculptors; & that the anecdotes of Zeuxis & Apelles, which have been transmitted to us, were not exaggerations of the Historian: [[strikethrough]] But [[/strikethrough]] Yet the gentlemen of the pen, the learned Amateur Writers on the Art—the Walpoles—the Webbs and Winkelmans—had decided otherwise, and the world for a while was persuaded to adopt their conclusions. 

From the year 1755, when the Ancient City of Pompeii was discovered, till very recently, the unenterprising government of Naples had opened and explored only a few Streets, which were chiefly occupied by Shops, with the exception of the house of the wealthy Diomed, & a few others. But Diomed, like some modern men of wealth, as we may judge by the extent & furniture of his Cellars, had probably a better taste for Wine than Pictures; and though