95 
society; while it would guide the artizan in the 
improvement of his productions in such a 
manner, as greatly to enrich the stock of manu- 
factures; and to increase the articles of com- 
merce; and, as the sight is perhaps the most 
delightful of all our senses, this education of the 
eye would multiply the sources of enjoyment. 
" The value of the cultivated ea-r is well under. 
stood; and the time bestowed on the acquisition 
of the universal language of music, is abundantly 
repaid by the gratification which it affords, 
although not employed in the communication of 
knowledge, but merely as a source of agreeable 
sensation. Were the same attention paid to the 
improvement of the eye, which is given to that 
of the ear, should we not be rewarded with as 
great an increase of the blameless pleasures of 
life, --from the power of discriminating hues 
and forms,-as we derive from the knowledge 
of musical proportions and sounds? The cul- 
tivation of the sense of sight would have such 
an effect in improving even the faculty of exe- 
cuting those productions of mechanical labour 
which constitute so large a portion of the riches