Book excerpt: Excerpt from Anecdotes of Painting in England The establishment of a society for the encouragement of arts will pro duce great benefits before they are perverted to mischiefs. The boun ties bestowed by that society for facilitating the necessaries of life to the poor, for encouraging the use of own drugs and materials, or for naturalizing those of other countries, are bestowed on noble principles and with patriotic views. That society does not neglect even the elegancies of life. Arts that are innocent in themselves, and beneficial to the country, either by adding value to our productions, or by drawing riches, as they invite strangers to visit us, are worthy the attention of good citizens; and in all those lights that society acts upon a national and extensive plan. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.