_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.